By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The Dow closed in correction territory on Wednesday after reversing intraday gains on signs that Ukraine is preparing for conflict with Russia as tensions continued to escalate. 

It fell 1.4% or 464 points to take losses after its move into correction territory above 10%.  The  fell 1.8% the   fell 2.6%.

As Russia fears intensify, Ukraine declared an emergency Wednesday.

Reuters claimed that Russia was moving towards Eastern Ukraine to acquire military equipment. It is a blow for hopes of a diplomatic solution at a time when Kyiv may be preparing for conflict. Reports of cyber attacks that took Ukrainian government and bank websites offline also added to tensions.

Ukraine called on its citizens not to remain in Russia and called for all eligible men aged 18 or older to serve the military.

Further sanctions were imposed by the U.S. against Nord Stream 2 AG. This company was charged with building Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The move follows the first tranche of sanctions, announced a day earlier, aimed at restricting Russia’s ability to raise funding from the West.

The Europe Union, meanwhile, is set for an emergency summit on Thursday to discuss next steps following Russia’s move into Ukraine.

Oil prices remained stable despite rising tensions, which in turn boosted energy stocks.

Beyond the geopolitical tensions, a slew of quarterly earnings from consumer discretionary companies including TJX Companies (NYSE:), Lowe’s Companies (NYSE:) and Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:) were in focus.

TJX Companies (NYSE 🙂 dropped 5% following fourth quarter results. The company reported that top and bottom line numbers were not met due to a rise in costs caused by the pandemic and disruptions in supply chains.

Lowe’s, meanwhile, pared some gains but was up about 1% after it delivered better-than-expected guidance as strong demand for home-improvement tools and building materials bolstered fourth-quarter results.

Caesars Entertainment had a less severe quarterly loss. The increase in revenue was due to the recovery of demand following the removal of pandemic restrictions. The shares increased by more than 3 percent. 

Technology giants lost their gains early with Apple (NASDAQ 🙂 and Amazon(NASDAQ :), leading to the downturn.

Nvidia (NASDAQ) and Advanced Micro Devices(NASDAQ:) pressured chip stocks to give up intraday gains. However, Intel (NASDAQ) performed relative well. 

Intel lost gains and closed flat following Raymond James’ upgrade of the stock from market perform to underperform. He cited limited downside potential.

The “prevailing bull case on Intel now is that it will finally make some incremental progress on its roadmap, which will arrest and reverse AMD’s share gains,” Raymond James Analyst Christopher Caso said.

The S&P 500’s trend lower into correction territory has pushed it into oversold territory, and to levels that could trigger support.

“The trading chart above shows the S&P 500 closing in on 4200 support once again- but in doing so, is pressing into oversold territory,” Janney Montgomery Scott said in a note. “This implies we are likely to see another rally as the index approaches the 4200 range in sessions ahead.”