Markets quivered Monday amid worries about how high oil prices will go and how badly the global economy will get hit after the U.S. and allies upped the financial pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Stocks swung down and then up, investors herded into gold in search of safety and the value of the Russian ruble plunged to a record low.
The S&P 500 was 0.3% lower in midday trading, paring an earlier loss of 1.3%, after Western allies moved over the weekend to block some Russian banks from a key global payments system. The U.S. Treasury Department also announced new and powerful sanctions that could immobilize any assets of the Russian central bank in the United States or held by Americans.
The Biden administration said Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, European Union and others will join the U.S. in hitting Russia’s central bank, which said the Moscow stock exchange would remain closed Monday.
