Russia invasion of Ukraine remains the dominant theme in the markets today. Safe haven flow pushes gold to highest level in more than a year, marching towards 2k handle. WTI crude oil also surges pass 100 level, rising as it does in geopolitical tensions. In the currency markets, Yen and Dollar are overwhelmingly the strongest ones, followed by Swiss Franc. Euro and Sterling are the weakest together with Kiwi. Aussie and Loonie are weak too, but not as bad as Euro and the Pound. Technically, Yen appears to have a slight upper hand against Swiss Franc in current risk aversion trade, with CHF/JPY dipping notably today. Immediate focus will be on near term trend line (now at 124.01), and 123.52 support. Firm break of this zone will complete a head and shoulder top pattern (ls: 125.48; h: 127.05; rs: 125.56). In this case, CHF/JPY would likely dive further to long term channel support (now at 120.23), before finding a bottom. In Europe, at the time of writing, FTSE is down -2.84%. DAX is down -4.54%. CAC is down -3.90%. Germany 10-year yield is down -0.0843 at 0.145. Earlier in Asia, Nikkei dropped -1.81%. Hong Kong HSI dropped -3.21%. China Shanghai SSE dropped -1.70%. Singapore Strait Times dropped -3.45%. Japan 10-year JGB yield dropped -0.0110 to 0.187. |
