PARIS (Reuters) – The Dow Jones and Standard & Poor’s 500 U.S. stock indexes rose in early trading on Friday as investors clearly wanted to believe in the possibility of a negotiated settlement to the conflict in Ukraine.
The Dow Jones gained 266.73 points, or 0.8%, to 33,490.56 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.54% to 4,311.94 while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.23% to 13,442.49.
Futures contracts pointed to a downturn at the start of the day but they moved into positive territory in reaction to statements from Moscow assuring that Russia was ready to send a delegation to Minsk to negotiate with Ukraine.
European equities amplified their rebound after this announcement and the broad Stoxx 600 index is now up 2.95%.
On Thursday, the American indices had ended in the green, the limited scope of the sanctions targeting Russia announced by the American President, Joe Biden, having reassured investors.
The continuation of this rebound at the start of the session benefited, among other things, the commodities sector, whose S&P index gained 1.08% and financials (+1.69%) while technologies fell by 0.22%.
(Written by Marc Angrand, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)
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