Investing.com - U.S. stocks opened sharply lower on Monday, despite positive U.S. personal spending data, as concerns over growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia continued to dampen market sentiment.
During early U.S. trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.76%, the S&P 500 slid 0.63%, while the Nasdaq Composite index declined 0.65%.
The Commerce Department said that U.S. personal spending rose 0.4% in January, above expectations for an increase of 0.1%. Personal spending for December was revised down to a 0.1% gain from a previously reported increase of 0.4%.
The report also showed personal income rose 0.3%, beating expectations for a 0.2% increase, after a flat reading in December.
But market sentiment remained under pressure amid tensions over the unfolding crisis in the Ukraine sparked a broad based selloff in risk assets, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send troops into the Crimea region over the weekend.
Ukraine's interim government has called for more international support to force Russian troops to leave.
The move sparked fears that the West will impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Russia. Russia’s central bank hiked interest rates from 5.5% to 7% on Monday, after the rouble fell to new record lows against the euro and dollar.
In the tech sector, Microsoft dropped 0.94% amid reports the company's newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella is preparing to shuffle management and put former political operative Mark Penn in the new role of chief strategy officer, in a move to boost growth.
Twitter added to losses, tumbling 1.66%, as the microblogging site was flooded with traffic after Academy Awards host Ellen DeGeneres took a group photot during the event and set the record for the most-retweeted post ever.
The move temporarily disrupted Twitter’s service for some users, bringing the microblogging site tons of publicity.
Financial stocks were also broadly lower, as U.S. lenders tracked their European counterparts. Bank of America plummeted 1.03% and Citigroup declined 0.90%, while JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs rereated 0.79% and 1.02% respectively.
Separately, Mexican authorities questioned Citigroup employees and seized records from Oceanografia SA to examine how the bank allegedly was cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were sharply lower. The EURO STOXX 50 plummeted 2.08%, France’s CAC 40 plunged 2.13%, Germany's DAX dove 2.78%, while Britain's FTSE 100 declined 1.42%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.47%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index lost 1.27%.
Later in the day, the Institute of Supply Management was to release data on manufacturing activity.