The S&P 500 dropped as much as 2.5% in the morning because of worries that the war may do more sustained damage to the economy than feared. But the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts trimmed its loss and was down a more modest 0.9% in afternoon trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 377 points, or 0.8%, as of 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% lower. The Dow had been down more than 1,200 points in the morning.
It was juust a day ago that U.S. stocks opened the morning with sharp losses, only to recover all of them and end the day with slight gains. But that was with the caveat that oil prices did not jump too high, like above $100 per barrel.
On Tuesday, oil prices rose again and raised more alarms. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, briefly leaped above $84. But that jump lessened through the day, and it was up a more modest 4.4% at $81.17 per barrel in the afternoon. That helped moderate the losses for stocks.
A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 4.9% to $74.71.
On Wall Street, airlines continued to sink on worries about rising fuel bills. The war has also led to canceled flights and stranded passengers.
United Airlines fell 5.4%, American Airlines sank 5.8% and Delta Air Lines dropped 4.3%.
