US equities fluctuate on Ukraine tension

United States stocks fluctuated, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index trading near an all-time high.

Bloomberg News reported on Friday that this was just as concerns that the situation in Ukraine could worsen offset data showing stronger-than-forecast jobs growth.

Safeway Incorporated slid by 2.5 as investors weighed potential antitrust hurdles to an offer for the company.

Peabody Energy Corporation and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Incorporated plunged at least 4.9 per cent.

Nike Incorporated rose by 1.4 per cent on a report the company signed quarterback Johnny Manziel to a marketing deal. Foot Locker Incorporated jumped by 7.4 per cent after fourth-quarter adjusted profit and sales topped estimates.

The S&P 500 lost 0.2 per cent to 1,872.60 at 2:34 p.m. in New York, after earlier rising by 0.4 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 11.58 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 16,410.31. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 7.5 per cent below the 30-day average at this time of day.

“There’s definitely concern about the Russia-Ukraine thunderstorm rolling back into the market,” Chad Morganlander, a Florham Park, New Jersey-based fund manager at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees about $150bn of assets, said in a telephone interview.

“That in itself is causing some uncertainty among investors. The economy is continuing to gradually improve. We have had very good market performance over the last several weeks in spite of great uncertainty on the geopolitical front.”

The US sent six F-15 fighter jets to Lithuania and will dispatch 12 additional F-16s to Poland, the two countries’ defense ministries said. The US Navy sent the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun into the Black Sea in what it called a routine visit unrelated to events in Ukraine.

Russia said its cash-strapped neighbor must pay off almost $2bn it owes it for natural gas by today and signaled it may cut supplies, ratcheting up the pressure as the two nations scrap over the future of the Black Sea Crimea region.

The country, a key transit nation for east-west energy supplies, is struggling to keep hold of Crimea after pro-Russian forces seized control of the peninsula.