US close: S&P 500 ends session marginally lower, snaps four-day rally

dl nyse new york stock exchange wall st street city finance dow jones nasdaq sp finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america 2 — New York Stock ExchangeSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks closed lower on Monday as market participants monitored the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and the crash of a passenger plane in China.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.58% at 34,552.99, while the S&P 500 was 0.04% softer at 4,461.18 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.40% weaker at 13,838.46.

The Dow closed 201.94 points lower on Monday, taking a bite out of gains recorded in the previous session.

In focus on Monday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned that if peace talks between himself and Russian head of state Vladimir Putin failed, it would signal the start of a "third world war". While Ukrainian and Russian officials have met for peace talks in the past, both sides have failed to reach an agreement. Ukraine has also rejected an ultimatum to surrender the city of Mariupol to Russian soldiers.

Brent crude also rose almost 8% to top $116 a barrel after the European Union said it was considering joining the US in an embargo on Russian oil.

Also drawing an amount of investor attention was news that a China Eastern Airlines passenger plane with 132 people on board had crashed near the city of Wuzhou, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The number of casualties on board the six-year-old Boeing 737-800 was not immediately known but rescue teams have been sent to the crash site and say a fire in woods caused by the downed aircraft has been extinguished.

In addition to the above, market participants kept a keen eye on rising Covid cases across Europe due to an emerging variant.

On the macro front, the Chicago Fed's national activity index slipped from 0.59 in January to 0.51 in February, indicating a slight drop in economic growth last month. The three-month moving average ticked down to 0.35 in February from 0.37 in January.

Elsewhere, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell made comments that may have opened the door for the central bank to take a more aggressive monetary policy stance moving forward when he stated the Fed must move "expeditiously" to bring too-high inflation under control, adding it will, if needed, use bigger-than-usual interest rate hikes to do so.

Dow Jones - Risers

Chevron Corp. (CVX) $164.64 1.80%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $63.34 1.52%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $223.71 1.27%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $182.57 1.24%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $165.38 0.85%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $60.56 0.80%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $51.10 0.59%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $175.91 0.57%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $150.68 0.38%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $507.75 0.30%