Russia said there has been no substantial breakthrough in talks with Ukraine
Wall Street stocks finished mostly higher on Friday to notch the second bullish week in a row. The indexes bounced from intraday lows ahead of the closing bell as dip buyers reemerged ahead of the weekend. The Dow Jones rose 0.4%, the S&P 500 added 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.16%. On the data front, the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index fell from 62.8 in February to 59.4 versus 59.7 expected. The expectations and the current situation sub-indexes fell as well, suggesting consumers feel the hit from the elevated inflation.
In Asia, equities were mixed earlier today. Risk sentiment was somehow supported by hopes of progress in Russian-Ukranian talks to take place in Turkey these days. China’s Shanghai Composite edged up less than 0.1% as Shanghai announced a lockdown to curb rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.31% while South Korea’s Kospi finished nearly unchanged.
European indexes opened higher, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 adding 0.6% in early trade. In the latest remarks, Russia said there has been no substantial breakthrough in talks with Ukraine. There is no progress when it comes to the idea of a potential Putin-Zelensky meeting, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov highlighted. US stock index futures turned lower as the overall sentiment in the financial markets looks neutral-to-bearish at the start of the week.
In currencies, the USD index keeps climbing north due to its safe-haven demand that pushed the prices to the 99.30 zone for the first time since early March. The greenback also derives support from the Fed’s hawkish signals these days. Against this backdrop, EURUSD remains capped by the descending 20-DMA after an earlier dip to mid-March lows around 1.0944. In the short term, it looks like the pair will stay below the 1.1000 figure, with downside risks persisting as long as the prices hold below the descending 100-DMA, currently at 1.1260.
