Global Shares Stable as Russia-Ukraine Pressure May Ease
US shares index futures rose on Monday. The euro increased, and global stocks have been maintained. It seems that a spark of hope for a diplomatic solution to the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation has appeared. The United States and Russian presidents agreed to hold a summit on the Ukraine crisis. The Kremlin says there are no specific plans for the discussion; however, a meeting can be scheduled at any time. Russia also extended military exercises in Belarus, which will end on Sunday. Western countries say it continues to gather troops on the Ukrainian border. Markets are telling President Putin that It does not want a full-scale escalation. Variability is elevated, but it is still restrained.
It is worth noting that Biden prepared a package of sanctions that includes banning US financial institutions from processing transactions for major Russian banks. S&P 500 stock futures rose 0.5%. Nasdaq futures gained 0.3% after falling more than 1%. US markets are on holiday on Monday, but futures are still trading.
The MSCI World Capital Index on Friday changed slightly above the two-and-a-half-week low. European stocks rose 0.34%. At the same time, British shares increased by 0.4%. MSCI’s broadest Asia-Pacific stock index, with an earlier loss outside Japan, stood at 0.3%. The Nikkei was down 0.8%. The euro strengthened to $1.1355, up 0.3% overall. The dollar index fell to 95.866 and lost 0.27%. The dollar dropped to 114.91 yen against the yen.
Fed and Russian-Ukraine Tension
The troubling markets were a prospect of aggressive tightening of the US Federal Reserve. The Fed’s key measure of core inflation will be released later this week. It is estimated that the annual growth will be 5.1%. This is the fastest pace since the early 1980s.
Fed officials are scheduled to speak this week. Consequently, markets will be hypersensitive to their views; In connection with a possible increase of 50 basis points in March. Recent comments have relied on such a drastic move, and futures have reduced their chances of increasing by half a point; Up about 20% from a week ago when it was over 50%.
This helped the short-term treasury reduce a small portion of its losses last week. Then when the whole curve was flattened, purchasing a haven reduced 10-year revenue to 1.9268%. The eurozone economic recovery plummeted this month. Alleviating pandemic constraints has helped Bloc’s dominant service industry.
Brent crude for June delivery rose to $93.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. US oil was $91.30. It is worth noting that oil suffered its first weekly loss in two months last week. Gold enjoyed a haven, reaching a nine-month high of $1,908/ounce before falling to $1,896 again.
