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After an early recovery attempt faltered, European equity markets turned mixed, lurching between gains and losses on Thursday. Investors continue to digest the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening plans while also monitoring developments surrounding Ukraine. Ukrainian Finance Minister said that Ukraine has asked the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to stop lending to Russia and that he hoped they default.
Meanwhile, US stocks opened lower, giving up pre-market gains as market players stay cautious amid worries about geopolitics, rising global inflation, and Fed’s aggressive tightening intensions. Still, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.2% in early deals after a plunge by more than 2% in the previous session.
The USD index briefly rallied to fresh May 2020 highs around 99.80 before correcting lower in recent trading as profit-taking prevented the buck from challenging the 100.00 figure. In part, this is due to a jump in the euro in wake of the latest hawkish ECB minutes. The document revealed that the central bank’s three criteria for rate hikes had been met. In a knee-jerk reaction, EURUSD rose to 1.0940 but failed to preserve gains and has settled marginally above 1.1900 since then.
Elsewhere, oil prices keep trending south after another rejection from the descending 20-DMA. Brent crude is holding just above the $100 a barrel psychological level that has been capping losses so far. The oil market struggles amid a stronger dollar coupled with rising US crude oil inventories. In a wider picture, however, the outlook for Brent remains upbeat as supply concerns continue to persist amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
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