U.S. Stocks Drop as Yen, Gold Advance on Ukraine Standoff.

The S&P 500 (SPX) lost 0.3 percent at 4 p.m. in New York, extending a weekly slide to 2 percent. The yield on 10-year Treasuries traded at 2.65 percent, as the notes had the best week in two years. Gold advanced to the highest in six months. The yen climbed for a fifth day against the dollar. Copper futures rose on speculation that fiscal policy will be loosened to bolster the economy in China.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov failed to defuse the standoff over Ukraine in six hours of talks in London, as the Crimea peninsula prepared to vote on joining Russia. The U.S. and the European Union are threatening sanctions against Russia if it doesn’t back down from annexing Crimea. Ukraine’s Kiev-based cabinet says Russia has taken over the southern region and is massing troops on its border.

“Everyone is watching this Ukraine situation, not knowing what to make of it with the referendum scheduled on Sunday,” John Carey, a fund manager at Pioneer Investment Management Inc., a Boston-based firm that manages about $220 billion worldwide, said by phone. “People are realizing the market is OK if we don’t have a real setback internationally.”

Read More: www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-13/asian-index-futures-pace-u-s-stock-drop-on-stronger-yen.html