U.S. stocks edged lower on Thursday on worries about the raging conflict in Ukraine and the outlook for U.S. interest rate hikes, putting the main indexes on course for their worst quarter since the pandemic crash in 2020.
The S&P 500 just ended its worst month since March 2020 as investors fret about coming interest rate hikes and uncertainty over the situation in Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he is not concerned about the plunge in the US stock market and he had expected it over concerns related to the new Omicron coronavirus variant."I expected it," Biden told reporters when asked if he is worried about the stock market plunge.
The Dow Jones fell over 900 points just after opening bell on Nov. 26, with other major Wall Street stock indexes—and risk assets more generally—also seeing sell-offs as news of a new COVID-19 variant spreading in South Africa seems to have sparked a broader risk-off sentiment among investors.