U.S. Stocks Close Notably Lower As Inflation, Ukraine War Concerns Weigh

(RTTNews) - After opening on a strong note, U.S. stocks pared gains and slipped deeper into the red to eventually close on a very weak note on Friday, with technology stocks suffering sharp losses.

The major averages all ended notably lower. The Dow, which climbed to 33,515.61 in early trades, ended with a loss of 229.88 points or 0.69 percent at 32,944.19. The S&P 500 settled lower by 55.21 points or 1.3 percent at 4,204.31, well off the day's high of 4,291.01, and the Nasdaq ended down by 286.15 points or 2.18 percent at 12,843.81.

The Dow shed about 2 percent in the week, going down for a fifth straight week. Nasdaq and S&P 500 lost 3.5 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively in the week.

Rising worries about the economic impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the various sanctions imposed on Russia by the U.S. and the Western alllies rendered the mood bearish.

The U.S. President Joe Biden called to downgrade Russia's "most favored nation" status as a trading partner.

Data showing a bigger than expected drop in U.S. consumer sentiment in the month of March weighed as well on the market. consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in over ten years in the month of March, according to a report released by the University of Michigan.

The report showed the consumer sentiment index slid to 59.7 in March from 62.8 in February. Economists had expected the index to dip to 61.4. With the bigger than expected decrease, the consumer sentiment index dropped to its lowest level since hitting 59.5 in September 2011.

One-year inflation expectations jumped to 5.4 percent in March from 4.9 percent in February, while five-year inflation expectations held at 3.0 percent.

While the report showed index of current economic conditions edged down to 67.8 in March from 68.2 in February, the index of consumer expectations slumped to 54.4 from 59.4.

Nike, Apple, JP Morgan, 3M, Microsoft and Intel declined 1.7 to 2.7 percent. Several other top stocks, including United Health, Walt Disney, Boeing, P&G, Honewell International, Goldman Sachs and American Express also ended notably lower.

Consumer discretionary stocks Tesla, Las Vegas Sands and Etsy Inc. posted sharp losses.

Shares of Meta Platforms fell sharply amid concerns that the user growth could slow further after Russia restricted access to the group's Instagram platform and launched a criminal probe in the company following social media giant changing its policy on hate speech to allow statements such as "death to Russian invaders" on its platform.

McDonalds surged up more than 2 percent. Caterpillar, Travelers Companies and Amgen also closed notably higher.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index plunged by 2.1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dove by 1.6 percent.

The major European markets showed significant moves to the upside on the day. The German DAX surged up 1.38 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.8 percent and France's CAC 40 moved up 0.85 percent. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.95 percent.