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WALL STREET - NEW YORK. U.S. stock index futures sank over 2% on Thursday and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 looked set to confirm bear market territory after Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Stock markets around the globe slumped, oil prices broke above $100 a barrel, while safe havens gold and government bonds surged in the flight to safety.
Russian forces invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea, confirming the worst fears of the West with the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two. The United States and its allies promised tough sanctions against Russia in response.
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Futures tracking the Nasdaq 100 fell 2.6%. If the losses stick through regular trading hours, the index could confirm bear market territory, or a 20% decline from its November record closing high.
Dow futures also indicated that the blue-chip index was set to confirm a correction from its all-time closing high on Jan. 4. A correction is confirmed when an index closes 10% or more below its record closing level.
The CBOE Volatility index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, was last trading at 36.41, its highest since Jan. 24.
"Sentiment, broadly, is in the dumps," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.
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"It's not a shock response because this has been building for weeks but really it is the realization that diplomacy has failed."
Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc dropped 4%, while other major Wall Street lenders fell over 3% each. Tesla Inc dropped 5.9% to lead losses among the mega-cap growth names.
Oil stocks topped all three indexes in premarket trading with Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp climbing 3.7% and 4.9%, respectively, as the attack exacerbated worries that a war in Europe could disrupt global energy supplies.
At 05:41 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 682 points, or 2.06%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 83.5 points, or 1.98%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 347.5 points, or 2.57%.
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Defense stocks General Dynamics, Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin Corp gained between 2.2% and 3.1%.
Fears of a war in eastern Europe have hammered stocks in recent days putting the main indexes on track for their worst week in a month, down between 2.8% and 3.8% as of Wednesday's close.
EBay Inc slumped 10.7% after it forecast bleak first-quarter results, as the e-commerce platform tackles waning online demand, stiff competition and global supply chain disruptions.
