The invasion of Ukraine led to US President Biden’s announcement of new sanctions against Russia. The events led to huge volatility in all markets on Thursday and Friday with global equities diving and oil, gold, and other energy and metals increasing in value.
By the end of the week, however, the Nasdaq Index had recovered from the market sell-off, it closed down 18.38 (-0.13%) at 14,189.16. At one point on Thursday, the index got close to 13,000 but its recovery also meant the week saw the index had its best day of 2022.
Amid a larger risk-off trade worldwide, on Thursday morning, investors bought safe-haven gold futures as well as silver and other metals. At one point, crude oil futures rose to over $100 per barrel for the first time since July 2014.
Several big defense sector exchange-traded funds, including the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense (ITA), SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense (XAR), and Invesco Aerospace & Defense (PPA), were up 2% to 4%. Consumer and technology stocks were among the Dow’s winners.
After reporting worse-than-expected losses and a significant year-over-year fall in orders for its fiscal fourth quarter, the home furnishings retailer Wayfair’s (NYSE: W) shares were volatile.
Wayfair’s revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 was $3.3 billion, down $419 million, or 11.4%, year-on-year. The diluted loss per share was $1.92, nearly three times the 70 cents experts expected.
A Wall Street Journal report says that Microsoft has announced that it will make it easier to use its security solutions on Google’s cloud. Microsoft had already released a version of its security software that was cloud-compatible.
Ben Snider, a Goldman Sachs analyst, also published a research paper on the current round of hedge fund filings. Microsoft is still the most popular long position among hedge funds.