ASIA:

Three of China’s largest banks have said that the country’s lenders face multiple headwinds this year that include the pandemic, global politics and domestic turmoil in the real estate industry. China’s banking industry is facing “a more complicated and severe business environment,” the country’s second-biggest lender by assets China Construction Bank Corp, said on Tuesday. The non-performing loan ratio at CCB fell to 1.42% at year-end compared with 1.51% three months ago, while at BoC it was 1.33% by year-end, compared with 1.29% end of September. The net interest margin, a key gauge of bank profitability, stood steady at 1.75% from the previous three months for BoC, while at CCB it dropped to 1.94% at the end of the year from 2.12% three months earlier.

Bank of Japan made on Monday offered unlimited bond-buying from Tuesday to Thursday to keep the 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yield from rising above an implicit 0.25% cap it sets around its 0% target.

The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today:

• NIKKEI 225 increased 308.53 points or 1.10% to 28,252.42
• Shanghai decreased 10.56 points or -0.33% to 3,203.94
• Hang Seng increased 242.66 points or 1.12% to 21.927.63
• ASX 200 increased 51.90 points or 0.70% to 7,464.30
• Kospi increased 11.51 points or 0.42% to 2,741.07
• SENSEX increased 350.16 points or 0.61% to 57,943.65
• Nifty50 increased 103.30 points or 0.60% to 17,325.30

The major Asian currency markets had a mixed day today:

• AUDUSD increased 0.00100 or 0.14% to 0.75097
• NZDUSD increased 0.00230 or 0.33% to 0.69288
• USDJPY decreased 1.165 or -0.94% to 122.606
• USDCNY decreased 0.01050 or -0.17% to 6.37373

Precious Metals:

• Gold decreased 9.59 USD/t oz. or -0.50% to 1,913.61
• Silver decreased 0.218 USD/t. oz or -0.88% to 24.623

Some economic news from last night:

Japan:

Jobs/applications ratio (Feb) increased from 1.20 to 1.21

Unemployment Rate (Feb) decreased from 2.8% to 2.7%

South Korea:

Consumer Confidence (Mar) increased from 103.1 to 103.2

Australia：

Retail Sales (MoM) (Feb) remain the same at 1.8%

EUROPE/EMEA:

Russia promised on Tuesday to scale down military operations around Kyiv and another city, but the United States warned the threat was not over as Ukraine proposed adopting a neutral status in a sign of progress at face-to-face negotiations. Russia’s invasion has been halted on most fronts by stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces who have recaptured territory even as civilians are trapped in besieged cities. Russia has started moving very small numbers of troops away from positions around Kyiv in a move that is more of a repositioning than a retreat or a withdrawal from the war, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

The major Europe stock markets had a green day:

• CAC 40 increased 203.05 points or 3.08% to 6,792.16
• FTSE 100 increased 64.11 points or 0.86% to 7,537.25
• DAX 30 increased 402.96 points or 2.79% to 14,820.33

The major Europe currency markets had a mixed day today:

• EURUSD increased 0.01200 or 1.09% to 1.11154
• GBPUSD increased 0.00320 or 0.25% to 1.31362
• USDCHF decreased 0.00390 or -0.42% to 0.93009

Some economic news from Europe today:

Germany:

German Import Price Index (MoM) (Feb) decreased from 4.3% to 1.3%

German Import Price Index (YoY) (Feb) decreased from 26.9% to 26.3%

GfK German Consumer Climate (Apr) decreased from -8.5 to -15.5

France:

French Consumer Confidence (Mar) decreased from 97 to 91

Spain:

Spanish Retail Sales (YoY) (Feb) decreased from 4.1% to 0.9%

UK:

BoE Consumer Credit (Feb) increased from 0.143B to 1.876B

M4 Money Supply (MoM) (Feb) increased from 0.1% to 1.0%

Mortgage Approvals (Feb) decreased from 73.84K to 70.99K

Mortgage Lending (Feb) decreased from 5.93B to 4.67B

Net Lending to Individuals increased from 6.1Bto 6.5B

US/AMERICAS:

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) survey that was released today remained relatively stable at 11.3 million during the last business day of February, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. New hires rose to 6.7 million and separations remained relatively stagnant at 6.1 million. The quits rate remained at 2.9% and discharges were unchanged at 0.9%. The number of new hires in February edged higher by 6.7 million or an increase of 263,000.

Pfizer announced that a fourth booster was approved for everyone over the age of 50. High-risk individuals over the age of 12 will also qualify for the fourth dosage as well.

US Market Closings:

• Dow advanced 338.3 points or 0.97% to 35,294.19
• S&P 500 advanced 56.08 points or 1.23% to 4,631.6
• Nasdaq advanced 264.73 points or 1.84% to 14,619.64
• Russell 2000 advanced 55.04 points or 2.65% to 2,133.1

Canada Market Closings:

• TSX Composite advanced 109.39 points or 0.5% to 22,087.22
• TSX 60 advanced 4.55 points or 0.34% to 1,335.65

Brazil Market Closing:

• Bovespa advanced 1,276.39 points or 1.07% to 120,014.17

ENERGY:

The oil markets had a negative day today:

• Crude Oil decreased 4.12 USD/BBL or -3.89% to 101.8400
• Brent decreased 4.41 USD/BBL or -3.92% to 108.0700
• Natural gas decreased 0.166 USD/MMBtu or -3.01% to 5.3420
• Gasoline decreased 0.0677 USD/GAL or -2.10% to 3.1511
• Heating oil decreased 0.1223 USD/GAL or -3.23% to 3.6611

The above data was collected around 12:30 EST on Tuesday

• Top commodity gainers: Lumber (3.17%) and Coffee (0.70%), Cocoa(1.11%), Rhodium (1.06%)
• Top commodity losers: Wheat (-4.52%), Methanol (-5.16%), Oat(-4.03%) and Aluminum(-4.70%)

The above data was collected around 12:39 EST on Tuesday.

BONDS:

Japan 0.2580%(+0.8bp), US 2’s 2.38% (+0.043%), US 10’s 2.4182% (-4.77bps); US 30’s 2.50% (-0.052%), Bunds 0.643% (+6.1bp), France 1.059% (+5.9bp), Italy 2.1390% (+3.2bp), Turkey 25.07% (+5bp), Greece 2.861% (+2.6bp), Portugal 1.420% (+6.8bp); Spain 1.516% (+6.3bp) and UK Gilts 1.651% (+3.1bp).