Tokyo — World stocks were mixed after talks between Russia and Ukraine agreed to meet again on Tuesday with the aim of ending the war.
European markets were mostly open low, but Asian equities and US futures were mostly high. Oil prices have risen.
As the Kremlin became more and more isolated, a 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks threatened Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, on the sixth day of the war.
Embarrassed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believed that the intensification of bombardment by Russian troops was designed to concede him, but the first five-hour talks agreed to another meeting within a few days. It ended with.
Russia is a major energy producer, and soaring oil prices and rising financial pressure from US and Russian allies to invade Ukraine have increased uncertainty about the outlook for the global economy.
France’s CAC 40 fell 0.6% to 6,622.35. Germany’s DAX fell 0.7% to 14,357.77 and the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% to 7,467.27.
On Wall Street, futures on both the S & P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.2% higher.
“The ceasefire negotiations at the Belarus-Ukraine border have ended, but in addition to further sanctions, the military fire has never ended,” said Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank of Singapore. Stated.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 scored 1.2 Belarus, ending at 26,844.72. Australia’s S & P / ASX 200 surged 0.7% to 7,096.50. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.2% to 22,761.71, and the Shanghai Composite Index rose nearly 0.8% to 3,488.83. The market was closed in South Korea due to a holiday.
“The market focus will continue to focus on geopolitical tensions, at least in the short term,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a report.
The value of the Russian ruble plummeted to record lows after Western nations moved to block some Russian banks from major global payment systems. On Monday, the US Treasury announced further sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia.
The ruble traded at $ 104.51 on Tuesday, up 3.2% from the lowest of 108.02 per dollar on Monday.
Many US state governors and legislators have taken steps to withdraw state pensions and treasury funds from investments in Russian-owned entities or Russian companies that support the war in an attempt to add to Russia’s financial pressure. I was taking it.
Various companies have announced plans to reduce or withdraw their operations in Russia, or to suspend operations in Ukraine due to conflict.
Investors were already at stake before Russia’s invasion in anticipation of a Federal Reserve plan to raise interest rates for the first time since 2018 to combat inflation.
The Federal Reserve is walking a tightrope and needs to raise interest rates enough to curb inflation, but not enough to put the economy in recession. Higher rates also put downward pressure on various investments, from equities to cryptocurrencies.
The war in Ukraine raises expectations that the Fed and other central banks may have to adopt a milder interest rate hike approach than previously expected.
Investors have invested in US Treasuries in search of safer returns. The Treasury yield for 10 years fell 0.15 percentage points to 1.83 percent on Monday. This is the biggest decline since the Omicron coronavirus variant first upset investors.
The Treasury for 10 years was 1.84 percent at the beginning of Tuesday.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will testify in Congress later this week and may provide clues for the future. Friday’s report also shows whether the strength of the US employment market continues in February and the Fed can increase room for rate hikes.
In energy trading, benchmark US crude added $ 2.50 to $ 98.22 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped from $ 4.13 to $ 95.72 on Monday.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose $ 3.16 per barrel to $ 101.13. Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic are skyrocketing in concerns about what will happen to crude oil supplies.
In currency transactions, the US dollar fell from 114.99 yen to 114.93 yen. The euro rose from $ 1.1219 to $ 1.1225.
Yuri Kageyama
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