Stocks rise, recovering some losses as oil prices sink

Stocks rose Wednesday to recover some losses after a volatile start to the week, as concerns over the impact of the punitive measures countries and companies have taken against Russia weighed on U.S. equity markets.

The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq each jumped. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, dropped nearly 10% but still held above the 30 level. A day earlier, the S&P 500 dropped another 0.7% on Tuesday to bring its year-to-date losses to 12.5%. The Dow shed more than 0.5% to sink further into a correction, while the Nasdaq Composite extended losses after sliding into a bear market earlier this week.

Crude oil prices pulled back from 14-year highs after Ukraine signaled it was aiming to pursue a diplomatic solution to Russia’s war. West Texas intermediate crude sank to just over $110 per barrel, while Brent crude traded just above $112 per barrel Wednesday afternoon. Gas prices at the pump, however, spiked to a fresh high across the U.S.

“You can’t have the rise at the fuel pumps not hit the economic pockets of everyday Americans, because it’s going to make everything go up in costs,” Victoria Greene, G-Squared Private Wealth founding partner, told Yahoo Finance Live. “Anything that rides on four wheels or six wheels, including all your shipping — it’s going to make all your costs rise. We’re already in an inflationary environment … it really is going to be something that we have to watch.”

“I don’t think that sanctions are going to go away,” she added. “The world is ……