Dow falls while oil spikes amid Ukraine war

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 400 points in pre-market trading on Monday while global crude surpassed $100 a barrel as investors grapple with the disaster from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Markets reacted to bleak developments in Eastern Europe, where Russian President Vladimir Putin put his nuclear armed forces on alert while diplomats conducted peace talks peace in Belarus.

S&P 500 futures fell more than 50 points while Nasdaq futures fell more than 150 points before the opening bell on Wall Street.

In Russia, the economy is reeling after the US and European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow’s central bank as well as its financial sector.

Russia’s currency, the ruble, fell about 30% against the US dollar on Monday, due to the Western union’s decision to cut off Russia’s major lender from the international messaging system SWIFT.

The situation was so bad that the central bank of Russia prevented the opening of the stock market in Moscow.

The US Treasury Department announced new sanctions that will immobilize any assets of Russia’s central bank in the United States or held by Americans.

The Biden administration estimates that the move could affect “hundreds of billions of dollars” in Russian funding.

Abroad, the major indexes all suffered significant losses. The FTSE in London fell 1% while Germany’s DAX 30 fell 2%. France’s CAC 40 also fell about 2%.

In Asia, results were mixed as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.6% before ending the day down 0.2%. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 ended up 0.2% after falling for most of the day. South Korea’s Kospi also gained 0.8 percent.

The Shanghai Composite Index in China rose 0.3%.