Early trading so far today has been a partial reversal of yesterday’s moves with equities giving back some of Tuesday’s gains and commodities plus gold clawing back some of yesterday’s losses. The catalyst for what so far appears to be an ordinary correction has been questions over whether Russia moving some of its troops away from Kiev while talks continue is a withdrawal or a repositioning.
Economic and corporate news has started to pick up again today, giving investors more to think and speculate about besides the war and central banks’ intentions toward tightening. US ADP Payrolls slightly beat expectations (455K vs street 450K). There also were a few earnings reports overnight, headlined by lululemon athletica ($3.37 vs street $3.28 up 7.0% premarket) and Micron Technology ($2.14 vs street $1.97, up 3.7% premarket), both of which handily beat street expectations.
US index futures are down 0.2% to 0.3% in what appears to be common backing and filling following yesterday’s US index gains of 1.0% to 1.8%. Over in Europe, the Dax is down 1.4% while the FTSE is flat. European currencies continue to rebound against the US Dollar with the Euro and Pound both up 0.5%.
Crude oil is also bouncing back a bit today with WTI up 2.2%, while Brent is up 2.0% along with gasoline. In metals action, copper is up 0.7% while gold is up 0.5%, silver is up 1.3% and platinum is up 1.5%. Energy contracts may remain active through today’s US weekly inventory reports and through tomorrow’s monthly OPEC+ meeting with the group having now had over a month to think about what actions to manage to supply, if any, may be needed amid the ongoing Ukraine war and related sanctions.
