A screen grab captured from a video shows a view of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a fire following clashes around the site in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on March 4, 2022
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Wall Street couldn't have asked for any more out of the February jobs report, but a fresh escalation of danger in Eastern Europe was more than enough to keep stocks grounded to end the week.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday said that 678,000 jobs were created last month, blowing past expectations for 423,000. Moreover, the unemployment rate ticked down even further, to 3.8%, while average hourly wages shot 5.1% higher.
But casting a long shadow over that news were late Thursday reports that Russia's military fired upon Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, sparking a fire that was later extinguished. While the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that radiation levels remained normal, the reports revived memories of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster (remember, that happened in Ukraine).
Those concerns appeared to hold equity markets down from the get-go, and the major indexes never recovered. The Nasdaq Composite again led the way lower, off 1.7% to 13,313, while the S&P 500 (-0.8% to 4,328) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.5% to 33,614) also closed solidly in the red.
The "fear trade" was alive and well, however. Gold futures gained another 1.6% to $1,966.60 per ounce, while U.S. crude oil futures rocketed 7.4% higher to $115.68 per barrel – a closing level not seen since September 2008.
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"Events in Ukraine … are causing risk aversion and a flight to safety as the attack on a nuclear power plant illustrates how dangerous the war is to the entire world, and not just the tremendous suffering of the Ukrainian people," says Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance.
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Other news in the stock market today:
Today, we're finishing up our regular examination of the "smart money's" recent comings and goings.
Our final look explores the top stock picks of 15 billionaire money managers – a group that includes David Tepper, Ray Dalio, Daniel Loeb, Seth Klarman and numerous other elite names.
From Kiplinger's Dan Burrows: "Studying which stocks they're chasing with their capital (or which stocks the billionaires are selling off, for that matter) can be an edifying exercise for retail investors. There's a reason the rich get richer, for one thing. But it's also helpful to see where billionaires sometimes make mistakes – at least in the short term. All investors are fallible, after all."
Read on as we look at 15 stock picks that make up outsized portions of these 15 billionaires' portfolios – including several household names, but a few well-off-the-radar equities as well.
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