On
Thursday, a Malaysia Airlines flight crashed in Ukraine and Israel began a
ground invasion into the Gaza strip.
The
Dow Jones index fell 161.39 points, or 0.94%, to 16,976.81, closing back below
the symbolic threshold of 17,000.
The
S&P 500 plunged 23.45 points or 1.18%, to 1,958.12, and the Nasdaq index
dropped 62.52 points or 1.41% to 4,363.45.
Malaysia
Airlines Flight 17 - a Boeing 777 with 298 people aboard crashed on the Ukrainian border near Russia.
That
followed news earlier in the day
of new US and European Union sanctions on
Russia.
The
uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of the crash - combined with news of
an Israeli ground operation into Gaza - led investors to flee to so-called safe
haven assets like gold and US Treasury bonds.
"I
can't remember a time when there were more geopolitical skirmishes going on,
all of which are creating uncertainty," said Michael Mullaney, chief
investment officer at Fiduciary Trust Co in Boston, who also said the market
was "trading on eggshells".
Gold
futures jumped $17.10, or 1.3%, to $1,316.90 an ounce on strong demand.
Shares
in Microsoft rose 1.02% after the technology giant announced its biggest job
cuts in its 39-year history.
Microsoft
chief executive Satya Nadella announced the reductions as part of his effort to
shift the company away from software towards online services, and said most of
the cuts would be in the Nokia handset business, which Microsoft bought in
April.
Another
technology giant - Intel - failed to impress investors with its second-quarter
earnings, despite notching better-than-expected PC sales, dropping 2.74% on
Thursday.
However,
Yum! Brands, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, was the day's biggest loser, falling
6.89% after disappointing quarterly.
BBC
Business
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