Global markets made good gains over the past week, and ended Friday’s trading in the green, as investors were closely following the negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and Thursday and Friday witnessed a series of high-level meetings between world leaders and international bodies.
NATO committed additional forces along its eastern flank, the United Kingdom and the United States imposed more sanctions on Russian elites and officials, and the United States announced billions more in aid to Ukraine.
It comes as markets struggled with another volatile week, with a hawkish pivot from the US Federal Reserve, raising bets that monetary policy will be tightened aggressively in a bid to rein in hyperinflation.
US stocks
On Wall Street, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose slightly at the close, Friday, with financial stocks rising after the benchmark Treasury yield jumped to its highest level in nearly three years while shares of technology companies and other big growth companies declined.
The three major indices posted gains for the second week in a row. The Dow Jones rose 0.3%. The Standard & Poor’s rose by 1.8%, and the Nasdaq rose by 2%.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is now up about 3.9% in March, erasing losses incurred due to the war in Ukraine late last month.
The recovery came over the past week, even as the war in Ukraine dragged on and interest rates soared, with the Federal Reserve set to raise rates several times this year.
Investors are assessing the Fed’s firmness as it tightens policy after Chairman Jerome Powell said this week that the central bank needed to move “quickly” to combat high inflation and raised the prospect of a 50 basis point rate hike in May. The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds rose above 2.5 percent.
At Friday’s close, Standard & Poor’s rose 0.53% to 4543.94 points, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.15% to 14173.22 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153.40 points, or 0.44%, to 3,4861.34 points.
While jobless claims in the United States fell by more than analysts’ expectations to a 43-year low, in a strong sign of the continued recovery from the “Corona” pandemic, despite the repercussions of the invasion of Ukraine on the global economy, Kristalina Georgieva, Director of the International Monetary Fund, said, during the week, that expectations The new fund, which is expected to be issued next April, will show that the Ukraine war has slowed global economic growth.
European stocks
European markets closed slightly higher on Friday, as investors continued to monitor the war in Ukraine and assess the outlook for global monetary policy.
The European Stoxx 600 Index closed up by only 0.12%, after reversing its previous losses, but incurring 0.2% weekly losses. Oil and gas shares rose 1.2%, while banking shares fell 0.4%.
In terms of individual stock price movement, Sweden’s Trailburg rose more than 23% to lead the European premiere after Yokohama Rubber announced that it would buy its tire business for $2.18 billion.
Russian stocks
Russian stocks suffered a rough ride, Thursday, as they returned to limited trading after a month of halting trading due to the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions. Volatility continued on Friday, and the MOEX Russia index fell sharply, erasing most of the previous session’s gains.
Japan shares
The Japanese Nikkei index rose for the ninth consecutive session Friday, in the longest streak of consecutive gains since September 2019; Investors repurchased cheap stocks even after the recent rally prompted traders to take profits.
The Nikkei index changed its direction, rising 0.14% to 28149.84 points, as the index climbed 4.93% this week.
The broader Topix index settled at 1981.47 points, but recorded a weekly gain of 3.78%.
said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market analyst at Sumitomo Mitsui DS. Asset Management “Investors have absorbed the impact of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war while US interest rate increases have already been taken into account.”
And Tokyo Electron, a chip equipment manufacturer, gained 0.63%.
Shionoji Corp.’s stock jumped 4.49% after the pharmaceutical company signed an agreement with the Japanese government to provide it with an oral treatment for COVID-19 that the company is currently developing.
On the other hand, the shares of SoftBank Group for Technology Investment and KDDI Phone Company declined by 0.25% and 1.85%, respectively.
(agencies)