Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• U.S. Initial Claims 248k from talk of 217k
• Wires: NATO accuses Moskow of “misleading the world” on troop withdrawals

What’s Moving

It was rough going overnight, with the market not really interested in unwinding safe haven trades, despite the lack of major activity on the Russian/Ukrainian border. There was some switching from Dollars into Yen, but most of the other majors traded tight sideways ranges.

Equities had a bad day, with all major indexes in the red, after the NATO headline and on continued mutterings from Biden that the attack could happen “any day now.”

Gold had a solid session, posting a fresh six-month high on the weaker equities.

Thoughts

Local trading is expected to trade in the usual Friday manner, especially with a lack of major trading incentives overnight. The only data release locally today is Japanese National Core CPI (E: +0.3%), which is unlikely to have a major impact on dealings.

Pivot Points