The United States and Europe are planning new sanctions to punish Moscow for killing civilians in Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned that more deaths are likely to be found in areas seized from Russian invaders.
MSCI’s broadest index of stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan rose 0.16% to 601.3, the strongest since Feb. 24. The benchmark index has lost 4% since the start of the year, driven by sharp declines in Chinese equities.
US stocks ended higher on Monday, driven by technology stocks.
“Prime U.S. brokerage data continues to indicate that the recent rally in equities is being fueled by retail money, likely compressing those who were under or short,” said Tapas Strickland. , director of economics and markets at NAB, in a note.
“US earnings reporting season kicks off next week and it will be interesting to see how companies interpret the tea leaves, and whether earnings forecasts are revised down,” he added.
Global equities had a volatile quarter, with the Russia-Ukraine crisis and concerns over rising commodity prices fueling inflation fears and clouding the direction of interest rates.
The Japanese Nikkei was flat, the S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.5%, while South Korean stocks lost 0.2%.
S&P 500 stock futures fell 0.08% and Nasdaq slid 0.06% after Wall Exchange rose on Monday.
Markets in mainland China and Hong Kong were closed for a public holiday on Tuesday. Last week, Shanghai experienced a two-stage lockdown as authorities scrambled to contain the city’s largest-ever COVID-19 outbreak.
The market’s attention will be on the Australian central bank’s guidance on its response to inflationary pressures, although it is expected to hold rates steady in its review later on Tuesday. The Aussie was steady at $0.7543, staying close to Monday’s high of $0.75565, a level not seen since July 6th.
The single European currency was little changed at $1.0973 after falling as low as $1.0960 in the previous session for the first time since March 28.
Global markets are awaiting Wednesday’s release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting, which may offer signs that the U.S. central bank may raise its benchmark overnight interest rate by a half a percentage point next month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% on Monday, the S&P 500 gained 0.81% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.9%. Twitter shares jumped 27% following news that Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk took a 9.2% stake in the microblogging site.
Oil futures rose in early trade as the possibility of further sanctions added to concerns over supply disruptions as Iran nuclear talks stalled.
Brent crude futures gained 1.6% to $109.25 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate futures were also up 1.6%.
The price of gold fell, with spot gold falling 0.1% to $1,929.6 an ounce.