US stocks declined after both high-level talks did not produce a stop in fighting and as investors worry that war in Ukraine could lead to higher inflation for much longer.  Today’s inflation report showed widespread pricing pressures before the full impact of the global shock from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Energy costs, soft commodities, […]

US bans all Russian energy imports The announcement by President Biden overnight of a unilateral ban on Russian energy imports had been well flagged to markets already. That limited the fallout from the announcement and although energy prices still finished higher overnight, equity markets in New York were only slightly lower. In Asia, a relief […]

Oil heading for USD 100? A winter storm in Texas appears to have been responsible for the latest spike in crude prices, as traders fret about the possibility of outages in the Permian Basin. In such a tight market, that’s more than enough to encourage traders to buy what was the mildest of dips following […]

It’s been another downbeat session in financial markets, with even US tech stocks losing recovery momentum ahead of the open as focus switches to the January jobs report. While earnings season has overall been something to reflect positively on, there have been plenty of potholes along the way that has continued to stall any recovery […]

The euro has posted slight gains in the European session, as it trades around 1.1450. Thursday was an absolute barn-burner, as EUR/USD surged 1.18%, its best one-day performance since December 2020. Lagarde beats a retreat on rates The ECB did not raise rates at its meeting on Thursday, but some tweaks in the statement and […]