The stock market bounced back after four consecutive days of decline on the back of commodity declines. The most recent optimism was fuelled by Ukraine's being open to discussing Russia's demand for neutrality, given that security guarantees are provided. The dollar tumbled, and the 10yr US Treasury yield strengthened to $1.92%. The Russian stock market is being kept closed in the meantime in order to avoid it from tumbling, so it is hard to gauge the extent to which businesses have suffered so far from sanctions. The ECB meeting is tomorrow, and we expect the crisis in Ukraine to shift the tone in policymakers' statements and further postpone the rate of the hikes.
The commodity market was on the forefront of news once again, as metals weakened across the board, despite news that industries in Europe are beginning to struggle to operate given the recent rally in energy prices. Tin saw the biggest drop of 9% on the day, as the metal fell to $44,260/t. Aluminium fell by 5% to test $3,320/t and it continued to edge lower to close at $3,341/t. Copper saw more moderate gains, as the metal fell to close at $10,001.50/t; cash to 3-month tightened into $20.00/t. Lead and zinc were on the back foot, closing at $2,405.50/t and $3,940/t, respectively. Nickel trading remains closed.
Oil futures weakened today, erasing the previous day's gains. WTI and Brent fell to $117.31/bl and $120.76/bl. Precious metals were also seen down on the day, with gold and silver falling to $2,001.76/oz and $25.99/oz, respectively.
For more in-depth analysis of base and precious metals, please see our Quarterly Metals report.
All price data is from 09.03.2022 as of 17:30
