Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• Ukrainian official: Kherson now “completely” under Russian control
• Australian Building Approvals soft -27.9% from talk of -2.9%

What’s Moving

Tight ranges again in Asia today, with the market beginning to square up ahead of tonight’s U.S. Initial Claims numbers and amid the ongoing Russian/Ukrainian conflict. Ranges were tight across all the majors, with good two-way flows seen over the day.

Australian Building Approvals were a shocker, being nearly ten times worse than expected, but the market largely shrugged this off.

Oil prices opened to early profit-taking in Asia after surging overnight, but have since continued their upside move, posting new highs.

Data tonight sees:

• Services PMIs from France (E: 57.9), Germany (E: 56.6), Euro-zone (E: 55.8), U.K. (E: 60.8)
• Euro-zone Unemployment (E: 6.9%)
• U.S. Initial Claims (E: 223k)
• U.S. Factory Orders (E: +0.8%)