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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened lower on Wednesday, running into profit-taking after the strong gains of the last week as the prospects for a long and profound disruption to the world economy from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appeared to become more realistic.
Overnight, Russia had unilaterally tightened the world oil market by claiming that an export terminal taking Kazakh oil to world markets via the Black Sea had to be closed for up to two months to allow repairs to storm damage. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s link was due to ship some 1.5 million barrels a day of crude in April, according to Argus Media.
Additionally, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia that the use of nuclear weapons, which has been mentioned in passing by various official and non-government figures in Russia as a possible course of action, would “change the nature” of the Ukraine war. Stoltenberg said Russia must understand it cannot win a nuclear war, and also called on China to stop spreading what he called Russian “lies and disinformation” about its actions in Ukraine.
By 9:45 AM ET (1345 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 288 points, or 0.8%, at 34,519 points. The S&P 500 was also down 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.1%, giving up more than half of its Tuesday gains.
