U.S. stock indexes were mixed Friday morning after Wall Street stayed focused on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average eased about 60 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 ticked down 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite eased 0.2%.
Investors continue to be on edge about the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian government and Russian state-controlled media on Friday exchanged fresh accusations of cease-fire violations at the border.
Ukraine on Thursday accused pro-Russian separatists of attacking a village near the border. In the U.S., meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to the United Nations and warned that the situation is at a “moment of peril.”
Wall Street is coming off a steep sell-off, with the Dow posting its biggest daily drop since the end of November.
“Markets tend to overreact to geopolitical events,” Credit Suisse’s Andrew Garthwaite said in a note Friday.
Oil prices fell Friday morning and energy stocks retreated. Halliburton, Devon Energy and Schlumberger were among the S&P 500’s top decliners.
Intel was the biggest laggard on the Dow, down around 3%. Bank of America reiterated an underperform rating on the stock.
Investors have also been grappling with the outlook for Federal Reserve policy. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who had just called for aggressive action, warned that inflation could get out of control without rate hikes.
Major averages are on pace for their second negative week in a row. The Dow is down 1.2% week to date, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have fallen 0.9% and 0.5% this week, respectively.
“Wall Street is feeling very jittery as it looks to the left and sees intensifying geopolitical risks with the Ukraine situation and then it looks to the right and sees the potential for aggressive Fed tightening,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said in a note.
Roku shares dropped about 25% after the video-streaming company reported a revenue miss and issued weaker-than-expected guidance.
