Devik Jain, Bansari Mayur Camdar

(Reuters] Wall Street’s principal indexes fell on Monday, following a bruising selloff last Wednesday as fears of a Russian strike on Ukraine roiled markets. This was ahead of a Federal Reserve policy conference later this week.

On Wednesday, the Fed’s highly-anticipated meeting will end. The market will closely watch how concerned it is about rising inflation and how aggressively the U.S. central banks will try to control it. [nL1N2U11YY]

Fed funds futures traders fully price in a 25 basis-point hike in March in addition to three rate increases in the year.

As President Joe Biden assessed options to boost America’s military capabilities in Eastern Europe, to stop a Russian troop buildup, Sunday’s announcement by the U.S. State Department stated that diplomats’ families were being ordered to leave Ukraine.

It was one of many clearest indications yet that American officials were anticipating an aggressive Russian move.

An indicator of investor anxiety on the U.S. stock markets, the, rose above 30 points to reach its highest level since January.

“Ukraine clearly remains a concern that is weighing on today’s markets,” said Darren Schuringa (chief executive officer, ASYMmetric ETFs in New York). This will continue to be a problem for markets until some sort of resolution is reached and more clarity about the final outcome.

The stock market is off to a bad start for 2022. It’s down 14.3% since November’s closing peak. This was due to the prospect of tighter policy. A rally in Treasury yields has stifled Wall Street growth.

Last week was the worst performance of both the Nasdaq since March 2020’s pandemic. An historic high of 8.8% was reached on Jan 4, but the benchmark index has now fallen 8.8%.

At 08.15 a.m. ET were down 101 points or 0.3%. They were also down 29.25 point, or 0.67%. And they were down 165.75 point, or 1.5%.

Technologies companies Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ), Apple Inc (NASDAQ), International Business Machines(NYSE:) Corp & Tesla (NASDAQ) Inc declined between 0.4% – 5.0% during premarket trading before their results.

Alphabet, Google’s owner (NASDAQ) Amazon.com and Netflix (NASDAQ) were all growth heavyweights. However, Corp fell by more than 1%. Citigroup The declines in major Wall Street banks were led by (NYSE:) down 1.5%

Schuringa stated that multiples and valuations for many tech companies are certain high. Therefore, if earnings don’t justify valuation, it’s possible to continue and make further corrections.

After Reuters reported that Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm, is preparing to bid for U.S. department stores days after a consortium backed Starboard Value offered a buyout offer, Kohl’s Corp (NYSE 🙂 surged 33.9%

Pfizer Inc (NYSE: ) dropped 3.7% after U.S. regulators refused to approve the treatment of growth hormone deficiency for children it had developed together with partner OPKO Health Inc.

OPKO’s shares dropped by 10.8%

Flash reading of the Markit composite PMI January for February is due to take place after market close.