Europe closes in the red as investors look to Russia – Markets in a minute

Wall Street trades in the red. Attention turns to Ukraine

Wall Street kicked off this Tuesday’s session in negative ground. This drop in the main indices is mainly due to a recent escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukrainewhich is reducing risk appetite, with investors turning to safe haven assets.

The S&P 500 drops 0.40% to 5,870.20 points, while the Nasdaq Composite loses 0.14% to 18,764.89 points. The Dow Jones depreciates 0.76% to 43,070.64 points.

The recent escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine comes after, allegedly, Joe Biden announced that he authorized Ukraine to use long-range North American missiles on Russian territory. In response, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, admitted the possibility of using nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory, as this Tuesday, Putin updated and will have made Russian nuclear doctrine more flexiblewhich establishes a framework of conditions under which the country’s president can order an attack using the nuclear arsenal at his disposal.

Pressuring investors’ appetite for risk was also news that Ukrainian forces have carried out their first attack on a Russian border regionusing missiles supplied by the West.

Given this, investors have been betting more on safe haven assets, including Treasury bonds, gold and the Japanese yen.

“The falls (…) are led by Europe, and that is what is also driving the US (indices) down,” David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, told Reuters.

Saxo Bank’s Andrea Tueni told Bloomberg that, “at the moment, the market reaction is contained.” He added that investors are “still in a wait-and-see mode.”

Among the main market movements, some companies in the defense sector stand out, including Lockheed Martin ea RTX Corpwhich increased, respectively, 0.88% and 0.46%.

On the other hand, the Palantir Technologiesa software and IT services company, continues to lose 1.73%, after advancing more than 50% since presenting quarterly results on November 4th.

Entre as “big tech”Nvidia rises 1.98%, Alphabet gains 0.47%, while Meta and Apple remain practically unchanged, with reduced gains. Amazon loses 0.45% and Microsoft slides 0.69%.