By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — The S&P 500 slumped Monday, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continued to push oil prices to 14-year highs, stoking fears that red-hot inflation will be here to stay longer than expected and derail economic growth.

They fell 3.0% and 2.4% respectively, 797 points. The dropped 3.6%.

Each side concluded the third round in Ukraine-Russia talks with very little progress towards resolving their conflict. Soaring commodity prices such as wheat, corn and oil have raised concerns over the potential economic consequences of this failure to achieve a settlement.

After the U.S. declared it was considering imposing an oil ban on Russia, oil prices reached their highest point since 2008.

There is a hope the U.S. and Iran will reach a new nuclear deal, bringing much-needed Iranian oil barrels onto the market, but the potential supply from the Islamic Republic isn’t enough to offset the risk of loss of Russian oil.

“Iran could export up to 2.5 million barrels of per day, yet Russian crude oil exports total 4.6 million barrels per day,” Commerabank said in a note.

As higher fuel prices are predicted to impact growth, the surging oil price has hurt airline stock stocks. Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:), American Airlines (NASDAQ:) and United Airlines (NASDAQ:) suffered heavy losses.  

On concerns over weaker European investor sentiment, the largest sector loser was Consumer discretionary stock.

Tapestry, Ralph Lauren (NYSE) and PVH were significantly lower with the latter dropping more than 15%.

Wedbush downgraded Ralph Lauren and PVH to neutral from outperform as both companies are “very reliant” on European growth, which will likely take a hit from the Ukraine-Russia conflict.  

No sign of an end to bank stocks being sold. SVB Financial (NASDAQ 🙂 and Synchrony Financial, both regional banks are included. Signature Bank While (NASDAQ: ) continues to suffer, megacap banks like Bank of America (NYSE 🙂 (NYSE 🙂 continue to be under fire. Wells Fargo (NYSE) were also deep in the red.

In other news, Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:) surged more than 37% after GameStop’s Chairman Ryan Cohen said the retailer should consider a sale and a spin-off its buybuy Baby chain. Cohen has a nearly 10% stake in Bed Bath & Beyond.

Mandiant (NASDAQ:) surged more than 16% on reports that Alphabet (NASDAQ:) is reportedly in talks to acquire cyber security firm.

The broader market, which has slipped deeper in correction – a more than 10% loss from its recent peak – appears to be trying to find a bottom.

“Small-caps are starting to bottom …  a positive sign that U.S. equity markets in general are now searching for some type of bottom in earnest,” Janney Montgomery Scott, but added that “this does not necessarily preclude more volatility ahead.”