Tech Giants Stumble As Wall Street Slides

Major US stock indexes stumbled on Friday as tech and growth shares led a broad decline and investors worried about the conflict in Ukraine while attention turned to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.

At the end of a volatile week, indexes had opened higher after Russian President Vladimir Putin said there were "certain positive shifts" in talks with Ukraine, without providing any details, but stocks then faded during the session.

“After we saw a bounce in the middle of the week, there is still too much uncertainty out there,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak. "The market has had a tough couple of Mondays so I think the short-term players want to take some chips off the table."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.69 percent, to 32,944, the S&P 500 lost 1.30 percent, to 4,204 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.18 percent, to 12,844.

The benchmark S&P 500 fell 2.9 percent for the week, and logged its second straight weekly decline. The Dow fell for a fifth straight week.

On Friday, declines in shares of megacap growth companies such as Apple and Tesla dragged on the S&P 500. Apple fell 2.4 percent while Tesla dropped 5.1 percent.

Meta Platforms shares fell 3.9 percent as Russia opened a criminal case against the Facebook parent after the social network changed its hate speech rules to allow users to call for "death to the Russian invaders" in the context of the war with Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine had reached a "strategic turning point" in the conflict with Russia, but Russian forces bombarded cities across the country and appeared to be regrouping for a possible assault on the capital Kyiv.

Regarding developments in the Ukraine crisis, “you just don’t know what you are going to see so there’s no reason to go into the weekend with a risk-on attitude,” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Reuters)