The Friday afternoon selloff in North American stocks which started with warnings out of the US that an invasion of Ukraine by Russia may be imminent and calls from several countries for their citizens to leave Ukraine has continued into this week.
Coming off of big Friday declines in the US that saw the NASDAQ plunge 2.8% and the Dow drop 1.4%, overseas markets have fallen off a cliff this morning with the Nikkei down 2.2%, the Hang Seng down 1.4%, the Dax is down 2.0% and the FTSE is down 1.3%.
In currency action, European currencies are under particular pressure with the Euro and Pound both down 0.3% against the US dollar. Defensive havens like the US Dollar and Yen remain supported while Gold has picked up on Friday’s breakout with a 0.75% gain. Commodity action is surprisingly mixed. Crude oil is giving back some of Friday’s gains with WTI and Brent both down about 0.7%, while copper is down 0.8%.
It is a quiet day for business news, keeping politics in the spotlight. It is a big week for earnings in Canada with several of the big miners scheduled to results along with Shopify, Restaurant Brands, Canadian Tire and Air Canada. The US is in between its main earnings season and retailer results but several hotel companies report this week along with Walmart on Thursday.
Economic news picks up again this week as well, headlined by inflation reports from the US, UK. Canada and China. It is also a big week for retail sales (several countries), industrial production and housing (starts, sales and prices) numbers.