Malaysian Air Crash Over Ukraine Drags World Markets

Nichole Harper
17 Jul, 2014
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street dropped after geopolitical tensions rose. Malaysian Airlines passenger jet was shot down by a missile over the Ukrainian airspace. Oil and gold gained and the dollar advanced and market indexes in Europe and New York fell. Microsoft announced its deepest job cut.

[R]4:30 PM New York – Stocks on Wall Street dropped after geopolitical tensions rose. Malaysian Airlines passenger jet was shot down by a missile over the Ukrainian airspace. Oil and gold gained and the dollar advanced and market indexes in Europe and New York fell. Microsoft announced its deepest job cut.[/R]

Market indexes on Wall Street declined on the rising geopolitical tensions after Malaysian Airlines passenger jet was downed on the Ukraine territory and Microsoft announced its largest job cut.

Tollbooth Index slipped 0.9% or 85.48 to 9,421.02.

S&P 500 index declined 1% or 19.95 to 1,961.65 and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.3% or 57.12 to 4,368.87.

Stocks declined in New York and European trading after Ukraine said rebels downed a passenger jet traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Interior Minister said the plane was shot down by a missile and the plane crashed near the eastern town of Torez, about 20 miles from the Russian border. Malaysian Air has not released passenger list so far.

The air crash killed all 295 people on board and the government in Kiev blamed pro-Russian rebels. The group leading separation movement from Ukraine denied the charge.

U.S. Movers

eBay Inc. ((EBAY)) jumped 1.5% or 77 cents to $51.47 after the online market place stated total revenue in the second-quarter ending in June climbed 13% to $4.4 billion from a year ago.

Net income in the quarter advanced 6% to $676 million or 53 cents a diluted share compared to $640 million or 69 cents from a year ago period.

Morgan Stanley ((MS)) rose 2 cents to $32.52 after the financial service company net revenue in the second-quarter ending in June grew 1.2% to $8.61 billion from a year ago.

Net earning in the quarter surged 131% to $1.57 billion or 94 cents a diluted share compared to $803 million or 41 cents from a same quarter last year.

Microsoft Corp ((MSFT)) increased 0.6% to $44.50, highest since the peak in 2000, after the company announced job cuts as much as 18,000 or 14% of its workforce which are primarily focused on the recently acquired Nokia Group in Finland.

Nokia related cuts were accepted after the company had announced at the time of acquisition annual cuts of $600 million a year. About 12,500 of the layoff will cut the overlapping staffs between Microsoft and Nokia division and the rest 5,500 staff will be in various Microsoft units.

The company said it plans to take pre-tax charge of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion over the next four quarters related to the layoffs. This is the second job cuts at Microsoft since 2009 when chief Steve Ballmer eliminated 6% or 5,800 staff at the height of recession.

Philip Morris International Inc. ((PM)) increased 1.1% or 93 cents to $85.63 after the tobacco products maker said net revenue in the second-quarter ending in June increased 2.8% to $21.05 billion from a year ago.

Net income in the quarter declined 12.9% to $1.85 billion or $1.17 a diluted share compared to $2.12 billion or $1.30 from a same quarter last year.

European Markets

In London trading, FTSE 100 index fell 0.3% or 23.09 to 6,761.58 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slid 0.2% or 23.98 to 9,835.29.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slipped 0.4% or 17.17 to 4,351.89.

Liberty Global agreed to acquire ITV for £481 million.

Novartis net rose 1% to $2.59 billion, Nordea Bank net profit plummeted 11% to €686 million and Sandvik profit plunged 17% to 1.54 billion kronor.

SAP profit tumbled 23% to €556 million but enterprise software developer lifted outlook.

Asian Markets

Stocks in Tokyo closed lower after freight shipping and brokerage firms led the decline and Orix acquired a logistics unit control from South Korea based Hyundai Group.

Investors turned cautious ahead of the revision on the economic update schedule to release after market close.

Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd revised its full-year outlook.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 9.04 to 15,370.26 and the broader Topix index inched lower 0.21 to 1,273.38.

The yen closed at 101.49 against one U.S. dollar.

The Sensex Index rose 11.44 to close at 25,561.16 The CNX Nifty gained 16.05 to 7,640.45.

The largest software outsourcing company in India, TCS said revenue and profit surged.

Tata Consultancy Services Limited fell 0.8% to Rs 2,381.10 after net profit in the first-quarter surged 45% to 5,568 crore and total revenue climbed 22.9% to Rs 22,111 crore.

In the U.S. dollar based on international accounting, net profit in the first-quarter surged 20.5% to $845 million from $701 million and revenue climbed 16.4% to $3.69 billion from $3.17 billion from a year earlier.

Crompton Greaves plans to split its consumer products business unit into a separate listed company.

Bajaj Auto profit edged up but CMC net plunged 35%. Gruh Finance profit climbed 24% and Lakshmi Vilas Bank net surged 34%.