Market Drivers – US Session – 23 February

Mohamed Abdelhamid 24 February, 2022 9:03 am Commodities, Forex Market, Global Stock Market, Market Update

The US session closed with investors expressing very pale optimism about Eastern Europe developments, despite this weak optimism the market’s sentiment deteriorated during US trading hours, resulting in the stronger USD against most of its major rivals.

Ukraine declared the State of Emergency starting February 24 and for 30 days amid reports from US intelligence indicating Russia will likely invade within the next 48 hours, despite multiple sanctions imposed on Russia from West countries. Also, several Ukrainian government websites went offline after a DDoS attack blamed on Russia.

In the UK, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said they would consider selling assets after the main rate hit 1%, and referred to a “quite gradual” path to unwinding the balance sheet. He also added that the word transitory for inflation was becoming overused.

The EUR/USD pair trades around the 1.1300 level, approaching its weekly at 1.1287. The GBP/USD pair is firmly lower and at weekly lows in the 1.3530 price zone. Commodity-linked currencies, on the other hand, are correcting lower, but still holding on to intraday gains. Generally speaking, risk aversion is likely to persist.

The Japanese yen and the CHF edged higher against their American rival, although gains were limited.

Gold is up, trading at around $1,908 a troy ounce. Crude oil prices ended the day little changed, with WTI trading little changed at around $91.80 a barrel.

Wall Street started the day with gains, but gave up on risk aversion and ended in the red territory.
As for economic data, US Gross Domestic Product Annualized(Q4) is awaited on Thursday as well as US Initial Jobless Claims.

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