Oil Prices Jump After Russia Sanctions

Markets quivered Monday amid worries about how high oil prices will go and how badly the global economy will get hit after the US and allies upped the financial pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Stocks swung down, up and down again, while investors herded into gold in search of safety and the value of the Russian ruble plunged to a record low, the AP reports. The S&P 500 fell 10.71 points, or 0.2%, to 4,373.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 166.15 points, or 0.5%, to 33,892.60. The Nasdaq rose 56.77 points, or 0.4%, to 13,751.40

The Biden administration said Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, European Union and others will join the US in hitting Russia’s central bank The Moscow stock exchange would remain closed Monday. Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic climbed more than 3% amid concerns about what will happen to crude supplies, because Russia is one of the world’s largest energy producers. The Brent oil benchmark hit $101 a barrel. That's upping the pressure on the already high inflation squeezing households around the world. In search of safer returns, investors plowed into US government bonds, which drove the yield of the 10-year Treasury down about 0.15 percentage points to 1.83%, on pace for one of its sharpest drops since the omicron COVID variant first rattled investors. Gold rose 0.7%.

The pressure on Russia isn't coming only from governments. London-based energy giant BP said Sunday it would dump its investment in Rosneft, a Russian energy company. BP has held a nearly 20% stake in Rosneft since 2013, and its shares listed in London fell 3.9%. European stocks broadly have fallen more sharply than their US counterparts given how much more closely tied Europe’s economy is to Russia and Ukraine. Germany’s DAX dropped 0.7%, France’s CAC 40 fell 1.4% and the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.4%. The Moscow stock exchange remained closed Monday. The Russian central bank raised its key rate to 20% from 9.5% in a desperate attempt to shore up the plummeting ruble and prevent a run on banks.

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