At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell 232.85 points, or 0.68%, to 34,079.18. The S&P500 index was down 31.39 points, or 0.72%, to 4,348.87. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index shed 168.65 points, or 1.23%, to 13,548.07. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.6%, the Dow lost 1.9% and the Nasdaq declined 1.8%.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE exchange by 2046 to 1257 and 157 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1473 issues advanced, 3136 issues declined, and 269 issues unchanged.
Total 10 of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes declined, with bottom performing issues were information technology (down 1.1%), communication services (down 0.9%), industrials (down 0.9%), healthcare (down 0.8%), and energy (down 0.8%).
The recent geopolitical standoff between Russia and Ukraine has accentuated the uncertainty and led to a risk-off environment on Wall Street. Russian-backed separatists packed civilians onto buses out of breakaway regions in east Ukraine, another development in a conflict the West believes Moscow plans to use as justification for all-out invasion of its neighbour. Russia has said it has no intention to attack Ukraine, accusing the West of fear-mongering.
Meanwhile, increasing expectations for U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike action also plagued the markets. New York Fed Bank President John Williams said earlier in the day it would be appropriate to hike interest rates in March, without mentioning the magnitude.
ECONOMIC NEWS: National Association of Realtors released a report showing an unexpectedly 6.7% rise to an annual rate of 6.50 million in existing home sales in January after tumbling 3.8% to a revised rate of 6.09 million in December.
Meanwhile, separate report released by the Conference Board showed an unexpected pullback in its leading economic index by 0.3% in January after climbing by a downwardly revised 0.7% in December.
Among Indian ADR, Tata Motors fell 0.91% to $32.67, INFOSYS rose 0.36% to $22.51, Wipro fell 0.41% to $7.33, HDFC Bank added 1.5% to $66.95, ICICI Bank rose 0.96% to $19.91, and WNS Holdings sank 0.39% to $84.80. Dr Reddys Labs added 1.39% to $56.91, and Azure Power Global dropped 8% to $14.92.
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