Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• Sanctions continue on Russia, also partially removed from the SWIFT system
• U.S. Chicago PMI weaker than expected at 56.3

What’s Moving

There were formal talks between Russian and Ukrainian leaders in late European time. No progress was made, but it looks like there might be a second round of talks, which helped remove a little risk in the market.

Ranges were wide overnight, but little progress was made on markets, with currencies ending slightly USD firmer, equities tightly mixed, Gold and oil slightly firmer.

Thoughts

The fortunes of today’s session will be led by any news coming out of the Ukrainian / Russian affair. There is a little local data today, but its not really expected to have any impact on trade. The potential red herring would be a hike from the RBA.

Local data today sees:

• Australian Current Account (E: 15.4bln)
• Japanese Final Manufacturing PMI (E: 52.9)
• Chinese Manufacturing PMI (E: 49.9) and Non-Manufacturing PMI (E: 50.6)
• RBA to announce on rates. (E: no change)

Pivot Points