US equity markets modestly weaker after a choppy session, with Russian forces shelling areas around Kyiv and another Ukrainian city overnight, just hours after it pledged to “fundamentally” cut back operations in the areas - Dow eased -65-points or -0.19% . The broader S&P500 lost -0.63%. Consumer Discretionary (down -1.51%) and Information Technology (-1.36%) both declined over >1% to lead seven of the eleven primary sectors lower. Energy returned to the top of the primary sector leaderboard with a +1.17% gain. The Nasdaq -1.21%. Apple Inc (down -0.66%) snapped an 11-session winning streak overnight, falling just short of matching the 12-session record winning streak from 2003. The decline in Apple’s share price came despite a report from Bloomberg News indicating that the company had growing ambitions in financial services and was looking to build payment-processing technologies that would support more in-house fintech efforts. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 shed -1.97%.
