Asian stocks rose mostly as investor-eye talks between Ukraine and Russia aimed to try to end the war.
Asian stocks rose mostly as investor-eye talks between Ukraine and Russia aimed to try to end the war.
Asian stocks mostly rose on March 1 Global investors eye talks with the aim of ending Russian military attack on UkraineWhich so far has just been an agreement to keep talking about.
Benchmarks were higher in Tokyo, Sydney and Shanghai in early trade. Hong Kong fell and markets in South Korea remained closed for the day. US futures declined and oil prices edged higher.
Rising oil prices on Russia, one of the world’s biggest energy exporters, and mounting financial pressure from the US and allies are adding to uncertainty about the global economic outlook for an invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces on Monday shelled Ukraine’s second-largest city, rocked a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital Kyiv in a 40-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles.
“The end game continues to be over. While the ceasefire talks on the Belarus-Ukraine border have come to an end, the military fire has certainly not ended with the further extension of sanctions,” said Tan Boon Heung at Mizuho Bank in Singapore in a commentary .
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.4% to 26,893.98 in afternoon trade. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 7,096.50. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.4% to 22,628.17, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.2% to 3,469.90. Business was closed in South Korea for a national holiday.
“Asian equities were higher on Tuesday after a mild rebound on Wall Street and talks between Russia and Ukraine. Markets will continue to focus on geopolitical tensions, at least in the short term,” said Andersen Alves of ActiveTrades in a report. .
The value of the Russian ruble fell to a record low after Western countries moved to block some Russian banks from a major global payment system. On Monday, the US Treasury Department announced further sanctions against Russia’s central bank.
Governors and lawmakers in several US states, seeking to add to the financial pressure on Russia, were taking steps to pull state pension and Treasury funds from investments in Russian-held entities or Russian companies supporting the war. At the beginning of Tuesday, the ruble fell by 3.2% to $104.51. The Moscow Stock Exchange was closed.
Ordinary Russians are facing higher prices and foreign travel hindered by Western sanctions on banks and ATMs on Monday. If Russian factories close due to low demand due to price shocks and supply-chain issues, there could be deep economic turmoil.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell as much as 1.6% on Monday and then ended 0.2% lower at 4,373.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to 33,892.60 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4% to 13,751.40, recovering from a 1.1% decline. The Russell 2000 Index of shares of the smaller company rose 0.4% to 2,048.09.
The Biden administration said Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, the European Union and others would join the US in killing Russia’s central bank.
Markets were already on edge before Russia’s invasion, worried about an upcoming hike in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, which would be the first since 2018.
The war in Ukraine is raising hopes that the Federal Reserve may have to take a softer approach to raising interest rates to fight inflation.
Investors have pledged to US government bonds in search of safe returns. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 0.15% points to 1.83%, its biggest drop since the Omicron coronavirus outbreak that previously rattled investors. Gold rose 0.7%.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will testify before Congress later this week and may offer clues on the way forward. A report on Friday will also show whether the US jobs market continued to strengthen in February, giving the Fed more leeway to raise rates.
The Fed is taking a tough step, needing to raise rates enough to contain inflation, but not so much as to throw the economy into recession. Higher rates also put pressure on various investments ranging from stocks to cryptocurrencies.
Benchmark US crude in energy trading rose 91 cents to $96.63 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Monday, it jumped $ 4.13 to reach $ 95.72.
Internationally, Brent crude rose $1.02 to $98.99 a barrel. Oil prices are rising on both sides of the Atlantic amid concerns about what will happen to crude oil supplies. In currency trading, the US dollar rose from 114.99 yen to 115.07 Japanese yen. The Euro was priced at $1.1203, which is lower than $1.1219.
,