Mr. Market’s roller-coaster ride continued apace Tuesday, as indications that the U.S. would ban the import of Russian energy became real.
After days of speculation about whether America would take this next step, President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would cease imports of Russian crude oil, natural gas and coal.
“The decision today is not without cost here at home,” Biden said. “Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump. Since Putin began his military build-up at Ukrainian borders … the price of gas at the pump in America went up 75 cents. And with this action, it’s going to go up further.”
U.S. crude oil prices unsurprisingly continued their recent climb, settling up 3.6% to $123.70 per barrel – a closing level not seen since August 2008, but also well off intraday highs above $129.
“The crude supply outlook will struggle to make up for Russian supplies over the next few months, so whatever pricing dips occur could be short-lived,” says Edward Moya, senior market strategist at currency data provider OANDA.
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The prospect of sustained high crude prices helped the energy sector (+1.6%) score another win, with the likes of Valero Energy (VLO, +7.8%) and Schlumberger (SLB, +7.1%) leading the pack. A few battered areas of the market, including travel, also rebounded – Booking Holdings (BKNG, +4.5%), United Airlines (UAL, +3.3%) and Carnival (CCL, +2.3%) all finished well in the green.
The major indexes were all over the place throughout the day, swinging from modest losses early to robust gains, then pulling back into the red by the closing bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.6% to 32,632, the S&P 500 declined 0.7% to 4,170 and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3% further into bear-market territory to 12,795.
Other news in the stock market today:
- The small-cap Russell 2000 bucked the trend, finishing up 0.6% to 1,963.
- Gold futures rose 2.4% to settle at $2,043.30 an ounce.
- Bitcoin recovered after a difficult Monday, gaining 2.5% to $38,515.23. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.)
- Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS, +2.1%) reported adjusted earnings of $3.64 per share in its fourth quarter on $3.35 billion in revenue, more than the $3.43 per share and $3.31 billion analysts were expecting. Same-store sales also rose a higher-than-expected 5.9% for the three-month period. “Shares of DKS now trade well under 10.0x fiscal 2023 consensus estimates, which we see as significantly undervalued for a …….