By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets traded sharply lower Friday on the signs of intensifying fight in Ukraine, with an attack on a nuclear plant reinforcing fears of an environmental catastrophe compounding the humanitarian one that is already happening.
By 3:50 AM ET (0850 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 2.1% lower and the CAC 40 in France dropped 2.2% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 1.6%.
In the latest development, Russian troops have occupied the nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhya in Ukraine after a bombardment that caused an overnight fire, raising fears of a serious environmental incident.
These concerns have been partially eased after U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said there was no indication of elevated radiation levels at the plant, but it prompted U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce he would call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has set in motion a broader disruption of global energy markets, which can only be exacerbated by the capture of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Such a disturbance could severely hurt global growth for years to come, given Moscow’s significance in the production of crude and gas.
Oil prices edged lower, handing back early gains following the news of the nuclear plant attack, which makes it likelier that Europe and the U.S. will close the loophole in its current sanctions package that allows payment for energy supplies to continue uninterrupted. Russia is the world's biggest energy exporter.
So far, the West has stopped short of targeting Russia's oil and gas exports, but customers are largely steering clear of them anyway due to fears of becoming entangled in the sanctions.
By 3:50 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.2% lower at $107.44 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.7% to $109.70. Both contracts climbed to multi-year highs on Thursday before a sharp pullback.
In corporate news, ING (AS:INGA) stock fell 2.8% after the Dutch bank said that about 700 million euros ($771 million) in outstanding loans were "affected" by the sanctions on Russian entities.
Dassault Aviation (PA:AM) stock rose 1.3% after the maker of Rafale fighter jets reported a steep rise in annual earnings fuelled by higher deliveries of its warplanes, even as it expected to post lower sales this year than in 2021.
On the economic data front, Eurozone retail sales for January are due later Friday, but the main focus will be on the U.S. monthly employment report which is expected to show another month of strong job growth.
This would provide the Federal Reserve with room to lift interest rates later this month, something Chairman Jerome Powell repeated on Thursday he would back during the second day of his Semiannual testimony to Congress.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,942.10/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.5% lower at 1.1013.