Global stock markets end volatile week down amid Ukraine worries

Wall Street's drop was also caused by long-running angst about the Federal Reserve's plans to hike interest rates

US markets ended lower again on Friday, with the Dow shedding 0.68 per cent. AP

Global stock markets retreated on Friday at the end of a highly volatile week, rocked by twists and turns in the Ukraine crisis and concerns about coming interest rate hikes.

Wall Street had already witnessed a steep drop on Thursday on renewed fears that Russia would soon invade Ukraine, as well as long-running angst about the Federal Reserve's plans to hike interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.68 per cent to end at 34,079.18 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.72 per cent to 4,348.87. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.23 per cent to 13,548.07.

Intel tumbled 5.3 per cent to its lowest since 2020 after the chipmaker's turnaround pitch failed to impress investors worried about its loss of market share.

About 78 per cent of the 417 S&P 500 companies have in this reporting season posted quarterly earnings above analyst estimates as per Refinitiv data.

The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and 28 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 19 new highs and 395 new lows.

"I think given the irrefutable downtrend that we're in, it's very hard to find buyers in a market like this," said Maris Ogg, a founding principal at Tower Bridge Advisers.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100, the Paris CAC 40 and Frankfurt's DAX all ended the week in negative territory.

"Markets continue to chop around on these Russia headlines," said Neil Wilson, an analyst at Markets.com.

Shellfire rang out near the front line between government forces and rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, as Kiev and Washington accused Russia of seeking to provoke an incident to falsely justify an invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will oversee a ballistic missile drill this weekend, gave a warning about a "deterioration of the situation" in eastern Ukraine, while the US said an invasion was imminent.

The crisis in Ukraine comes as traders continue to contend with the prospect of US interest rates rising sharply this year as the Fed's tries to rein in inflation at a 40-year high.

After spending most of last year saying surging prices would be transitory, the US central bank is now in firefighting mode.

But commentators fear it may be behind the curve and will have to act more stringently than previously thought.

New York Fed president John Williams said hiking rates at the Fed's meeting in March is "appropriate", but he does not see a need to raise by more than a quarter-percentage point initially.

Still, he left the door open to faster rate hikes later if needed.

With tensions in Eastern Europe continuing to absorb most of the attention, oil prices rose despite traders' increasing optimism about a deal on Iran's nuclear programme that could see it restart crude exports.

"In the absence of a deal, we could already be talking about triple-figure oil prices," noted Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda trading group.