U.S. stocks got pounded on Monday as surging commodity prices delivered a fresh blow to Wall Street bulls, with investors reeling from the impact of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions leveled against Moscow in response to its military aggressions. Monday’s decline in stocks resulted in a bear market for the Nasdaq Composite Index, down 20% from its most recent peak and a correction for the Dow industrials.The Dow Jones Industrial AverageDJIA fell around 800 points, or 2.4%, to reach 32,817, falling well below the 10% required to put the blue-chip index into correction territory. The Nasdaq Composite IndexCOMP finished off 3.6% to around 12,831, marking a finish in bear-market territory for the technology-heavy index. The Nasdaq Composited needed to finish at or below 12,845.95 to end in a bear market, down by at least 20% from its Nov. 19 peak. The S&P 500 index SPX closed down 3% at around 4,201. All closing levels are on a preliminary basis.U.S. oil CL.1settles at a more than 13-year high, with the West Texas Intermediate crude for April deliveryCLJ22 rose $3.72, or 3.2%, to settle at $119.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest front-month contract finish since September 2008.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
