Intense volatility in the Wall

Major Wall Street indexes are fluctuating sharply, with the Dow Jones industrial average narrowing its gains above 400 points earlier and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 continuing negatively as investors try to assess the latest geopolitical developments in pending the Federal Reserve monetary policy decisions in the middle of the week.

Investors’ attention remains on Ukraine amid reports that talks between Kiev and Moscow will resume on Tuesday.

Ukrainian negotiator Mikhail Podoliak spoke of a “technical pause in the negotiations until tomorrow.” “For further elaboration in the working subgroups and clarification of individual definitions. Negotiations are ongoing,” he added in a Twitter post.

The fact that Kyiv and Moscow are continuing the negotiations gives a boost to the investment psychology, despite the bad image on the field, with the bombings and attacks in Kyiv and the largest cities in eastern Ukraine continuing with undiminished intensity.

Meanwhile, the White House seems to be considering US President Joe Biden visiting Europe without knowing the European capitals he will visit. At the same time, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, will address the US Congress on Tuesday.

Indicators – Statistics

On the board, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 208.09 points or 0.63% at 33,148.36 points, while the S&P 500 lost 5.46 points or -0.13% at 4,199.15 points. The technology Nasdaq is down 151.32 points or -1.18% at 12,692.53 points.

Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average, 20 are moving with a positive sign and 10 with a negative. The largest increase was recorded by American Express with gains of $ 5.75 or 3.43% at $ 173.66, followed by 3M with gains of 2.78% at $ 144.89 and JPMorgan Chase at $ 131.98 with an increase of 2.40%.

The three stocks with the biggest losses are Nike (-1.67%), Chevron (-3.05%) and Intel (-2.32%).

In any case, the focus in the coming days will be on the Fed, which meets on Wednesday and is expected to raise interest rates, trying to curb extremely high inflation.

Investors are expecting the Fed to announce an increase in its interest rates by 25 basis points after the end of the two-day meeting on March 15 and 16. This will be the first increase in interest rates since 2018.

The Fed meeting comes shortly after figures released last week showed consumer prices were rising at the fastest pace in 40 years last month.

It is recalled that the US market ended last week with significant losses, although far from the five-day low, which reached 2% for the Dow, which completed its fifth consecutive downtrend. At the same time, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 2.9% and 3.5% respectively, recording both their biggest weekly losses since January 21.

Thus, the key indicators have now entered a field of correction, with the Dow being almost 11% below its record, the S&P 500 13% below its own, and the technologically weighted Nasdaq, which carried the heaviest weight of the sell- off, in a bear market, now more than 20% away from the historical high of November.