Friday's afternoon trade: S&P, Dow weaker after Ukraine tension escalates

The S&P and Dow were weaker on Friday as tensions in Ukraine escalated and investors got few clues about the course of interest rates from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. Ukraine declared on Friday that Russia had launched a "direct invasion" of its territory after Moscow sent a convoy of trucks across the border into eastern Ukraine.
Yellen, in a speech at a central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said US labor markets remain hampered by the effects of the Great Recession. Yellen said the Federal Reserve should move cautiously in determining when to raise interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 9.37 points, or 0.06 percent, to 17,030.12, the S&P 500 was down 0.91 points, or 0.05 percent, to 1,991.46 and the Nasdaq Composite added 13.12 points, or 0.29 percent, to 4,545.22. The CBOE Volatility Index, a barometer of investor anxiety, edged up 1.5 percent to 11.93, and the S&P retreated from an intraday high it reached the previous day.