NEW YORK, Feb 18— A gauge of global stocks fell and government debt prices rose yesterday after hopes that diplomacy might resolve the Ukraine crisis faded on news Russian-backed separatists were evacuating residents from breakaway regions in the country’s east.
The dollar index, a measure of the greenback to six major trading currencies, rose 0.301 per cent, while the euro against the franc fell 0.19 per cent. The two currencies often are recipients of a flight to safety during times of crisis. Investors are waiting for the three-day weekend to be over to assess an equity market already weaker on the outlook that rising interest rates will hurt growth stocks, said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.68 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.72 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.23 per cent. All but one of the 11 S&P 500 sectors fell, with the exception being consumer staples, which do well in economic downturns. “In the worst-case scenario that Russia does take Ukraine, hypothetically as they took Crimea, a lot of the bad news is priced in and it would be ‘sell the rumor, buy the news,’” Hayes said.