Today, Tuesday (March 8, 2022), the stock markets in Asia are still deep in the red. The current situation around Ukraine is causing great uncertainty among investors. While the stock markets are on fire, commodity prices are soaring. Oil prices rose yesterday to a 14-year high and gold was able to crack the 2,000 dollar mark.
The fighting in Ukraine continues, and no agreement has yet been reached between the two countries. As long as this is the case, the stock markets are likely to remain under downward pressure. On the other hand, the loose interest rate policy of central banks is likely to remain in place despite rising inflation. This is likely to keep investors away from risky assets. The ECB will announce its interest rate decision this week.
Tomorrow, important economic data from Japan and China will be published. Japan will announce the GDP figures for the fourth quarter and China will publish the producer price index and the consumer price index for February.
Asia
NIKKEI (Tokyo) has fallen 1.71% to 24,790.95.
SHANGHAI (Shanghai) is down 2.35% to 3,293.53.
The S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) is down 0.83% to 6,980.30.
Taiwan Weighted (Taiwan) is down 2.06% to 16,825.25.
HANG SENG (Hong Kong) loses 1.55% to 20,731.00.
SET (Thailand) falls 2.15% to 1,591.76.
The stock markets in Europe start mixed in trading today.
The DAX (Frankfurt) starts with 0.99% in the red at 12,724.60.
FTSE 100 (London) with 0.79% in the red at 6,910.13.
CAC 40 (Paris) starts with 0.36% in the plus at 6,006.98.
EURO STOXX 50 (Frankfurt) is up 0.2% at 3,520.45.
The major U.S. stock index futures, however, are all in the red.
The S&P futures are down 0.61% at 4,173.00
DOW futures are down 0.68% at 32,558.00.
NASDAQ futures are 0.88% lower at 13,208.00.