TOKYO — The ruble plunged to a record low of less than 1 U.S. cent and most global stock markets declined Monday after Western nations moved to block some Russian banks from a global payments system.
The ruble has plunged more than 30% after the move to block Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system. The sanctions include restrictions meant to crimp the Russian central bank’s access to over $600 billion in reserves and hinder its ability to support the ruble. In New York, the future for the S&P 500 was 1.6% lower and that for the Dow industrials declined 1.3%.
“It’s all about the Russia-Ukraine situation and evolutions in that situation will drive market sentiment and direction,” Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a commentary.“President Putin will now have to accept that the ‘Western’ powers are prepared to accept quite a bit of economic pain now to punish Russia,” he said.Japan's Nikkei 225 index recovered from earlier losses to edge 0.2% higher to 26,526.82. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.2% to 22,713.02. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.