Wall St. Futures, Euro rally hope on Biden-Putin summit

LONDON, Feb. 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. stock market index futures rose on Monday, euro rose and global stock markets rallied as optimism for a diplomatic solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle to hold a summit on the Ukraine crisis. read more

The Kremlin said there were no definite plans for the summit, but an invitation or meeting could be set up at any time.

The summit will be held only if Russia does not first occupy Ukraine, which the West has said could be done at any time, despite repeated denials. Russia has extended military exercises in Belarus since Sunday’s end, and Western nations say they will continue to build troops on the Ukrainian border. read more

Markets take to heart what HYCM’s chief currency analyst Giles Cochlan said: “President Putin does not want a full-scale expansion, the volatility is high, but it is still contained.”

In a stock reminder, Reuters reported that Biden had prepared a set of sanctions that would prevent US financial institutions from executing transactions for major Russian banks. read more

The S&P 500 stock futures are up 0.5%. Nasdaq Futures rose 0.3%, down more than 1%. US markets are closed on Monday, but the futures are still trading.

Global stock index of MSCI (.MIWD00000PUS) Slightly shifted above the 2-1 / 2 week low that hit on Friday.

European stocks (.STOXX) 0.34% and British shares rose (.FTSE) Increased by 0.4%.

Wide index of MSCI of Asia-Pacific equities outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) Japan’s Nikkei cut previous losses to 0.3% (.N225) Its decline has halved to 0.8%.

The euro was up 0.3% to $ 1.1355, while the US dollar was down 0.27% at 95.866, up from 97.441 last month, 1-1 / 2 years higher.

The dollar fell to 114.91 against the yen.

Feed tightening

As inflation continues to run high, the prospect of a tightening of the US Federal Reserve’s aggression also worries markets. The central bank’s preferred core inflation is set to emerge later this week and is expected to show an annual increase of 5.1% – the fastest pace since the early 1980s.

“January inflation rates have been surprisingly inverted,” said Bruce Cosman, chief economist at JPMorgan.

“We now expect the Fed to raise 25bp (baseline points) in each of the next nine sessions, with the policy rate approaching a neutral level early next year.”

At least six central bank executives are due to speak this week and markets will be more sensitive to their comments on raising the base by 50 basis points in March.

Recent comments have leaned against such drastic action and have reduced futures’ chances of a half-point hike to about 20% from 50% a week ago.

This helped short-term treasuries reduce their losses slightly last week, while reducing the 10-year yield to 1.9268% due to the safe purchase of full-curved bulls.

German 10 year government bonds

According to the IHS Markit’s Flash Composite Purchasing Managers Index, the eurozone economic recovery picked up sharply this month as the easing of corona virus controls boosted the camp’s dominant service sector.

In the oil market, Brent crude was up 28 cents at $ 93.80 and US crude was up 23 cents at $ 91.30.

Oil suffered its first weekly loss in two months last week, amid temporary signs of improvement in the Iran deal, which could release new supplies to the market.

However, a deal is still a long way off, and Ukraine will be offset by the risk of sanctions against major oil producer Russia in the event of an invasion.

On Sunday, ministers of Arab oil-producing countries rejected calls for further pumping and said the OPEC + – an alliance of OPEC countries and other suppliers, including Russia – should stick to its current agreement to add 400,000 barrels of oil a day.

Gold has benefited from one of its oldest safe havens before falling to $ 1,896 an ounce.

Editing by Kenneth Maxwell, Lincoln Feast, Peter Graf

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