- Thirteen days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces continue to make slow progress and are clearly taking heavy losses, with Ukraine claiming more than 11,000 Russian soldiers killed including some generals. Talks between Russia and Ukraine has produced no results, with Russia claiming it would withdraw if the Ukraine cedes Crimea, some eastern regions, and promises never to join NATO or any other military alliance.
- The war in Ukraine and resultant nuclear threats from Russia are having a strong impact on financial markets, with stocks falling, and energies and many agricultural commodities rising to long-term highs, with no end in sight.
- WTI Crude Oil continues to rise strongly due to the war in Ukraine, exceeding $127 per barrel in trading yesterday, a new 13-year high price. Crude Oil is now at a price which will begin to impact global economic growth. The US is currently in talks with Venezuela and Iran, two major oil producers, and may move to ban Russian oil imports, although markets are reluctant to buy Russian oil anyway.
- Agricultural commodities such as Wheat and Corn continue to perform strongly, with Wheat futures closing yesterday at an all-time high, and Corn rising.
- Stock markets fell strongly yesterday. The S&P 500 Index made its lowest daily close since June 2021 yesterday. The Japanese market is down by more than 1.6% today. European markets are expected to open lower, with several major indices at 1-year lows.
- Gold continues to look bullish, hovering close to $2,000 an ounce, and may well go on to test its all-time high of $2,075 later this week.
- The EUR/USD currency pair fell again yesterday, and traded as low as $1.0806, close to a 2-year low. The Euro is currently the weakest major currency in the Forex market due to the economic and political impact of the growing economic boycott and fear that the war in Ukraine may widen to become an Europe-wide conflagration. The Euro has dropped below parity with the Swiss Franc for the first time since 2015.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally seem to have peaked six weeks ago, showing that the omicron variant wave is in strong decline almost everywhere.
- It is estimated that 63.3% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 448.1 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.34%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing only in Bhutan, Brunei, China, South Korea, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and Vietnam.