Stocks fall again, this time on Ukraine worries

NEW YORK — Stocks tumbled again Friday, and this time bond yields joined in the swoon as worries about an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine piled onto Wall Street’s already heavy list of concerns about inflation and interest rates.

The S&P 500 lost 1.9 percent after the White House encouraged all U.S. citizens to leave Ukraine within the next 48 hours, before possible military action by Russia.

The price of oil rose more than 3 percent.

Stocks took a sudden turn lower in the middle of trading, with losses for the S&P 500 nearly tripling in about half an hour. Similar, knee-jerk swings swept through other markets as investors pulled money out of riskier things like stocks and moved instead toward the safety of bonds and gold.

They’re just the latest sharp veers in what’s already been a tumultuous 2022 for markets. Wall Street has been shaking as it comes to grips with a Federal Reserve forced to aggressively remove the low interest rates that investors love, in order to beat back high inflation.

Tensions have been simmering for a while about possible military action by Russia, and U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday that the United States did not have definitive information that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an invasion. But he said that “the threat is now immediate enough that prudence demands that it is the time to leave now” for Americans in the country.

Russia is one of the world’s largest energy producers, and the warnings gave oil prices a jolt. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3.3 percent to settle at $94.44 barrel amid the possibility that violence could disrupt supplies. U.S. crude rose 3.6 percent to settle at $93.10 per barrel.

Prices were already rising before the Ukraine warnings, likely because of a statement from the International Energy Agency that supplies in the oil market are already tight, said Stewart Glickman, energy equity analyst at CFRA.

Gold also rose, gaining nearly $20 in half an hour during the afternoon to top $1,860 per ounce, as investors searched for safety.

A similar rush for stability also drove investors in Treasury bonds, which in turn lowered their yields. The 10-year Treasury yield sank to 1.91 percent from roughly 2.03 percent late Thursday.

For bond yields, it’s a sharp Uturn after they steadily marched higher on expectations that the Fed will raise rates more often and by a sharper degree this year than expected. Just a day earlier, the 10year yield topped 2 percent for the first time since 2019.