Stocks fall as West ratchets up sanctions against Russia over Ukraine invasion

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 188.13 points, or 0.55 per cent, at the open to 33,870.62.

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 fell, investors herded into gold in search of safety and the Russian ruble tumbled to a record low below a penny at one point.

The S&P 500 was 0.7 per cent lower in morning trading 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 U.K., 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.

Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic climbed more than 4 per cent amid concerns about what the worsening tensions will do to crude supplies because Russia is one of the world’s largest energy producers. Prices also rose for natural gas, wheat and other commodities, adding further pressure to the already high inflation squeezing wallets around the world.

In search of safer returns, investors plowed into U.S. government bonds, which drove the yield of the 10-year Treasury down 0.11 percentage points to 1.87 per cent, on pace for one of its sharpest drops since the Omicron coronavirus variant first rattled investors. Gold rose 1.6 per cent.

They’re just the latest severe swings for markets, which were relaxing in relief just on Friday, in part on thoughts that sanctions against Russia at the time weren’t as severe as they could have been. More sharp turns are likely ahead given all the uncertainty about the war.