On Monday, #Precious Metals fell sharply, with #Gold falling 1.44% and #Shanghai Silver falling 2.15%. The #Ukraine crisis deepened further over the weekend, but it is gratifying that Russia and Ukraine are ready to start a new round of negotiations, and market risk aversion has cooled. At present, the situation in Russia and Ukraine is still the focus of market attention. This week will still need to pay attention to the US non-farm payrolls data and Powell's semi-annual monetary policy testimony.
In a joint statement on Saturday, the European and American powers announced that they would punish the Russian central bank and exclude some Russian banks from the SWIFT information transmission system. The system is used for trillions of dollars in transactions between banks around the world. Russian President Vladimir Putin's order on Sunday to put Russia's nuclear deterrent on "combat alert" further exacerbated the deterioration of the situation.
However, according to CCTV news, on the 27th local time, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said that the Ukrainian side has agreed to negotiate with Russia in the Pripyat River area on the border of Ukraine and Belarus. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that negotiators have just arrived at the venue, which has eased market tensions in recent days. The process and outcome of the follow-up peace talks between the two sides will be the focus of global attention at present.
Economic data released earlier on Friday showed the Fed's favored indicator of price pressure rose 6.1 percent year-over-year in January, three times the 2 percent target and its highest level since 1982. Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence in Michigan hovered at nearly 10-year lows in February due to concerns about inflation.
St. Louis Fed President Bullard continues to support a cumulative 1 percentage point increase in the benchmark rate by July 1, arguing that Russia's invasion of Ukraine will have little impact on the U.S. economic outlook. A number of other Fed sources have also expressed support for the March rate hike, including Fed Governor Waller, who said there was a strong reason to support a 50 basis point hike if economic data continued to burn high.
