As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, global stock indexes and major cryptocurrencies plummeted on Thursday, while commodities like oil and precious metals surged.
As markets opened on Thursday morning, European stocks were down 2.46 percent, with the FTSE 100 in London down 2.46 percent, the Dax in Germany down 3.48 percent, the CAC40 in France down 3.01 percent, the Ibex in Spain down 2.58 percent, Euronext 100 down 2.62 percent, and the Euro Stoxx 50 down 3.37 percent.
The drop coincides with dropping markets across Asia Pacific on Thursday, with the Nikkei down 1.81 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 3.21 percent, Australia’s All Ordinaries down 2.95 percent, and Shanghai’s Composite down 1.70 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1.38 percent in pre-market trade, the Nasdaq is down 2.57 percent, and the S&P 500 is down 1.84 percent, with the latter continuing a days-long downward trend.
The Moscow stock market, which utilises the Russian ruble, halted all trade on Thursday due to the currency’s extreme volatility, with the benchmark index MOEX down about 40%.
Meanwhile, oil prices surpassed $100 per barrel for the first time since 2014—Brent crude climbed over 7% to $103 per barrel—while safe-haven assets such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium rose between 1.5 and 3%.
Major cryptocurrencies have also fallen in the aftermath of the attack, with bitcoin down 8% in the previous 24 hours, ether down 12%, Binance’s BNB down 11%, and Ripple’s XRP down 13%.
