There is a growing unwillingness for traders to hold equity positions over the weekend amid the most volatile and uncertain time in several years.
This risk aversion saw the Dow Jones fall 0.5% on Friday, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.8% and the Nasdaq lost 1.7%.
The latter was pushed lower by the likes of Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which fell 5% and 2%, respectively, after announcing sales bans in Russia and Belarus.
Concerns about Russian troops taking control of key infrastructure assets in Ukraine and the fire at the largest nuclear plant in Europe were central to the sell-off, which overwhelmed strong jobs numbers in the US.
Payrolls increased 678,000 for the week, well ahead of the 440,000 expected yet hourly earnings were barely changed suggesting wage growth isn’t as worrying as previously expected.
Across the week, the Dow and S&P 500 both fell 1.3% and the Nasdaq shed 2.8%.
Oil hits 1970s high
With the oil price now trading over USD$115, the threat of stagflation and an energy-induced recession is very real, leaving central banks in an extremely difficult position for the remainder of the year.
US stock market movers
These US stocks were among the biggest movers on Friday.
- Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) up 17.6%
- Alcoa (NYSE: AA) up 9.4%
- Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) down 6.7%
- Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) down 6.8%
- Micron (NASDAQ: MU) down 8.2%
- Sea (NYSE: SE) down 11.5%
