Equities rebound while banks and industrial companies act to comply with Russia sanctions - 1.3.2022

The Dollar strengthening is intact currently. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, added 0.1% on Monday despite ISM-Chicago, Inc report expansion of economic activity in Chicago area slowed more than expected in February.

EUR/USD continued sliding Monday while GBP/USD ended higher. Both Pound and euro are higher against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY reversed its climbing yesterday while AUD/USD ended higher with both the yen and Australian dollar higher against the Greenback currently as the reserve Bank of Australia left policy unchanged.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are up ahead of the Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing PMI report at 16:00 CET today. US stock market closed mixed yesterday with bank shares leading losses as many banks said they were talking with government officials to be clear on how sanctions against Russia should work. The three main US stock index benchmarks booked daily returns in the range of -0.5% to +0.4% Monday.

European stock indexes are falling currently after ending sharply lower yesterday led by bank shares on the back of new Western sanctions excluding certain Russian banks from the SWIF international payments system. Asian indexes are rebounding today with Nikkei leading gainers.

Brent is rising currently on supply disruption concerns as fighting continued in Ukraine. Prices advanced yesterday. Shell on Monday said it would exit all its Russian operations, including the flagship Sakhalin 2 liquid natural gas plant in which it holds a 27.5% stake, and which is 50% owned and operated by Russian gas group Gazprom. Earlier BP had announced at the weekend it was abandoning its 20% stake in state-controlled Rosneft. US West Texas Intermediate WTI rose 4.5% and is higher currently. Brent gained 3.1% to $100.99 a barrel on Monday.