Market Week: February 14, 2022
The Markets (as of market close February 11, 2022)
The major benchmark indexes closed last week lower. Rising tensions over the Russia-Ukraine situation
coupled with rising inflation made investors a bit skittish towards stocks. A higher-than-expected jump in the
Consumer Price Index added to jitters over an accelerated tightening of the Federal Reserve’s monetary
policy. The Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and the Dow lost value last week, while the Russell 2000 and the Global
Dow advanced. As of late Friday afternoon, concerns increased that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day
now.” An invasion would likely spur sanctions against Russia’s exports of oil and gas, causing supply to
decrease and prices to rise. Crude oil prices rose nearly 1.7% last week following Friday’s 4.0% jump in the
price per barrel. Ten-year Treasury yields were volatile last week, reaching 2.0%, only to drop back down to
1.95% by the end of the week. Gold prices rose for the second consecutive week. Meanwhile,
fourth-quarter earnings data continued to be mainly positive, with 78% of the S&P 500 companies
exceeding earnings estimates.