With the Ukraine war still raging and limited ceasefires struggling to hold over the weekend, capital continues to flow into commodities and defensive havens as the new trading week begins. Brent crude traded $125.00/bbl this morning, while WTI crude oil is up 3.4% and was up 6.2% earlier today, while and gasoline is up 3.1%. Gold touched $2,000/oz earlier this morning and is currently trading up 1.1%, while copper is up 0.9% and platinum is up 1.2%.
Capital continues to flow out of Europe. The Dax is down 1.4% while the FTSE is down 0.3%, both have rebounded from deeper losses earlier in the day. The Euro is down 0.5% while the Pound is down 0.3%. In Asia Pacific trading, the Hang Seng plunged 3.8% and the Nikkei dropped 3.0% but resource stock weighted Australia fell only 1.0%. The three main US index futures contracts are all down approximately 0.8%.
The business news calendar for this week is pretty light. Earnings season is over except for a few resource companies. The main economic events are US consumer price inflation plus an European Central Bank meeting on Thursday, followed by Canadian employment numbers on Friday. This could keep the main focus this week on the war along with ongoing speculation over what the Fed may do at its meeting next week.
SIA Wealth In The Media:
Chief Market Strategist Colin Cieszynski appeared on BNN Bloomberg today where he discussed current tactical rotation and relative strength in equity markets including renewed interest in the Materials and Defense sectors. He also provided an update on recent trading and long-term trends in the gold and oil markets.
There were areas that were depressed in the markets, but are now bouncing back: Colin Cieszynski
Investors should be keeping an eye on nuclear talks, and how it will impact oil
