SINGAPORE, March 18 ― Stockmarkets took a breather today after several days of sizeable gains, while commodities were set on edge by the lack of progress in Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations.
“It's very difficult to get any confidence that you're going to be able to reliably source commodities out of Russia or Ukraine,” said Tobin Gorey, a commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.The war in Ukraine has settled into a grinding pattern of siege. Wheat and corn futures, which are sensitive to Black Sea supply disruptions, bounced sharply overnight.
The Treasury market is likewise sounding a warning on the outlook, with the yield curve flattening and flirting with inversion as investors think rate hikes that the Federal Reserve began on Wednesday will end up hurting growth.Wall Street indexes rose overnight to close out their biggest three-session percentage gains since November 2020. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones each rose 1.2 per cent and the Nasdaq 1.3 per cent.