Dow Jones Futures: Biden Says Putin Has Decided To Invade Ukraine; 5

Dow Jones futures will open on Sunday evening, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The stock market rally suffered significant damage last week, with the major indexes below key support and starting to move toward their Jan. 24 lows.

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Fears that Russia will invade Ukraine are weighing heavily on the market rally, which is already dealing with inflation and other big headwinds. The uncertainty over what Russian President Vladimir Putin will do adds significantly to the volatility.

President Joe Biden said late Friday that he is confident that Putin has decided to invade Ukraine within the next few days. Other U.S. and NATO officials have echoed that concern, saying Russia has continued to build up troops near the Ukraine border. That’s despite Kremlin claims that some troops are pulling back.

Cease-fire violations between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists have surged in the past couple of days, perhaps offering a pretext for Russia to launch a Ukraine invasion.

On Feb. 20, big Russia war games with Belarus are set to end. Moscow has said troops will then return home, but will they? Feb. 20 also is the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Putin may be holding off on a Ukraine invasion to avoid offending China.

But setting aside the geopolitics, the stock market rally looks ever weaker. Investors should take a defensive posture with minimal exposure.

Dow Jones Futures Today

Dow Jones futures open at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures. However, ETFs tracking the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 retreated Friday evening after Biden made his latest comments on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

The DIA ETF fell 0.4%. SPY sank 0.5% and QQQ 0.6%.

While Dow futures will open Sunday evening as usual, U.S. markets will be closed Monday in observance of the Presidents Day holiday. Other stock markets will be open around the world, however.

Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn’t necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.

Five Stocks That Don’t Suck

Apple stock, O’Reilly Automotive (ORLY), Commercial Metals (CMC), Union Pacific (UNP) and Nutrien (NTR) are five stocks holding up near buy points with relative strength lines at or near highs.

Apple (AAPL) dwarfs all of these names, but it’s the only one trading below its 50-day moving average.

The RS line, the blue line in the charts provided, tracks a stock’s performance vs. the S&P 500 index. It’s an easy way to spot leading stocks in any kind of market. In a weak or choppy market, stocks with RS lines at highs could be leaders in the next rally.

Nvidia, Tesla Just Hanging On

Meanwhile, Nvidia stock and Tesla (TSLA) rebounded from near their 200-day moving averages on Friday. This is an area where Tesla stock and Nvidia (NVDA) found support before in late January. Can these big former winners continue to do so? It’ll likely depend on the market rally’s next moves. But as megacap stocks,…