Russia-Ukraine Conflict

The US dollar held firm on Wednesday on the back of tariff concerns and tense Russia-Ukraine negotiations, while the New Zealand dollar slid after the central bank delivered a super-sized interest rate cut.

‘Great progress’, ‘We’re close but not there on inflation’, ‘We don’t get excited about one or two good readings, and we don’t get excited about one or two bad readings.’ These are some semi-live comments from Fed Chair Powell at its second day hearing before Congress in the wake of blow-out US January inflation figures, published less than two hours earlier.

Ukraine has turned to buying natural gas from the European Union as Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have reduced domestically sourced supply, anonymous sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg on Friday.

Here are the key developments on the 1,062nd day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The non-interest-bearing Silver may find challenges due to the higher opportunity cost associated with higher interest rates.

WTI price gains momentum to near 70.25 in Friday’s Asian session.

The conflict between Russia-Ukraine and concern around future oil supply disruptions might help limit the WTI’s losses.

Oil prices have been somewhat insulated by the growing tension between Russia and Ukraine. However, natural gas prices have been more sensitive to these developments, while gold, as one would expect, has benefitted from safe-haven demand.

Today, in euro area we receive ECB’s indicator of negotiated wage growth in the third quarter.