And the squeeze is on…. (at least at the start of the day).
The major indices are sharply higher at the open as traders react to hopes for a shift toward a solution and Ukraine. Admittedly, the news is nothing new, but the markets are subject to sharp reactions on hopes, and overnight trading can exasperate the moves.
In addition, more economic pressures continue to be placed on Russia which at some point will hopefully have them calling “uncle”.
Meanwhile, the West suffers from higher oil prices and commodity prices. However, there is silver linings in those markets today as
- Wheat futures prices are now lower for the second consecutive day.
- Gold has moved back below the $2000 level and down $61 on the day.
- Copper and palladium prices are also lower
- Crude oil is also down about 5% on the day despite the fact that US and UK will cease oil imports from Russia and the EU has announced that they would look to cut reliance on Russian oil by two thirds in the next year.
A snapshot of the other markets currently shows:
- Dow industrial average +590 points or 1.82% at 33224.99
- S&P index up 83.16 points or 1.99% at 4253.85
- NASDAQ index up 306.95 points or 2.4% at 13102.50
- Russell 2000 up 40.15 points or 2.05% to 2003.16.
A snapshot of other markets shows:
- Spot gold $-65.07 or -3.17% at $1985.10
- Spot silver is down $0.55 or -2.10% at $25.81
- WTI crude oil is trading at $117.62, down $6.08
- Bitcoin is up sharply at $42,111.46
- two year yield is up 5.7 basis points at 1.66%
- 10 year yield is up 6.2 basis points or 1.913%
A snapshot of the forex market has the EUR as the strongest of the majors, while the JPY and USD remain the weakest as risk on flows dominate.