According to Bloomberg News, US equity futures and stocks dropped Monday. At the same time, the safer havens comprising sovereign bonds surged when the fear of an inflation shock is rife across the world economy with soaring oil on the impending possibilities that there might be a ban on the import of Russian crude supplies.
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The S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 contracts dropped by over 1% and European futures 3%. An Asian stock index indicated a bear market, a plunge by more than 20% from a peak in February 2021. Brent crude was up by 8% after touching for a brief $149 per barrel. As far as copper and palladium are concerned, it was seen that they touched an all-time high.
As per Antony Blinken, Secretary of State said on Sunday that the United States, along with the allies, are looking forward and planning for an embargo on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration might likely act alone. The high energy costs pose a threat, thereby stalling global growth, which is a risk scaring the markets.
Grains, energy, and metals have escalated, fearing chaos in the flow of commodities due to the sanctions on Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.
The Euro was found to sink, dropping against the Swiss franc for the first time since 2015, since there is a worldwide concern related to the economic outlook for Europe that lies primarily on Russian energy. Bloomberg News reports that the dollar advanced, and so did the sovereign bonds, with the US 10-year Treasury yield dropping below 1.70%. Gold reached the mark of $2000 per ounce.
Bloomberg News reports that the global economy is already reeling under high inflation due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Federal Reserve and the other central banks now face the challenge of tightening the monetary policy so that the cost of living can be contained without the roiling of risky assets.
China had signaled that there is more stimulus on the cards to attain a set economic growth target, but the worries of the war have overshadowed the same.
While in Russia, President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree letting companies and government shell out in rubles to the foreign creditors to keep defaults at bay while at the same time the capital controls remaining in place. Said the Finance Ministry, the sanctions will decide whether the international investors will collect the payments or not.
It was found that more businesses restrained their business operations in Russia, including Netflix Inc., the streaming giant, and TikTok, a social media service provider, which China-based ByteDance Ltd owns.
