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Let's take a look at the global market highlights and news for March 4th 2014.
Ukraine on the verge of financial collapse Stocks sink as traders turn to risk aversion
And Gold hits 2014 high as safe haven trades
Let's take a quick look at what is happening in the global markets now.
Wall Street exchanges closed sharply lower as investors shy away from riskier assets
amid worries about tensions between Russia and Ukraine. At the closing bell, the Dow
Jones dropped 153.68 points to 16-1-68.03. The broad-based S&P 500 slumped 13.72 points
to 18-45.73, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ tumbled 30.82 points to 42-77.30. Stocks were down
as much as 1.5 per cent before Ukraine's Prime Minister said the worst phase of the crisis
with Russia appeared to be over. Still, tensions are still bubbling in the region.
The concerns forced European markets sharply lower, with Germany's DAX leading the decline
by closing 3.4 per cent weaker. Britain's FTSE and France's CAC also saw heavy retreats.
The hardest hit markets were those in Russia, however, where benchmark indexes plunged over
10 per cent. The news in Europe overshadowed better-than-expected data reads in the US,
with manufacturing and consumer spending numbers topping expectations.
Europe's main stock market indices closed lower on Monday amid a standoff between Russia
and Ukraine, with Frankfurt's DAX 30 tumbling 3.44 percent to 93-58.89 points. London's
FTSE 100 dropped 1.49 percent to 67-08.35 points, and Paris's CAC 40 shed 2.66 percent
to 42-90.87 points.
In the foreign exchange market the focus of global trading remained on Ukraine. European
equities were hit hard, but Euro to Dollar showed again remarkable resilience. Risk‐off
sentiment supports the yen but the losses of USD/ to JPY were also very moderate Most
Asian equity markets were in negative territory as rising uncertainty on Ukraine kept investors
in risk‐off mode. However, the losses were moderate and so were the price swings in the
major currency cross rates. USD to JPY drifted below the 101.50 mark. EURO to Dollar dropped
off Friday's highs north of 1.38, but the correction remained very limited.
The EMU manufacturing PMI was revised slightly higher but this factor was also largely ignored.
EURO to Dollar which seemed almost immune to the market turmoil settled in a very tight
range around the 1.37-80 pivot. EURO to Pound was again an oasis of calm, in a nervous global
market environment. The pair held a tight range roughly between 0.82-25 and 0.82-50.
Sterling lost a few ticks against the dollar and the euro early in the session, but the
downside remained well protected.
Moving to the commodities market prices jumped sharply higher today due to increasing tensions
in Ukraine. The Brent crude oil price topped above $112 a barrel, gold futures rose to
their highest levels in four months and also soft commodities rose sharply today. Gold
futures surged on Monday as the escalating crisis in the Ukraine spurred a flight to
safe assets, lifting prices to their highest settlement since late October. The yellow
metal is seen by many investors as a haven in times of increased market volatility.
This is Amy Anderson from OptionRally signing off. Follow me on Facebook and watch for our
new financial terms of the day and our weekly events news. And of course I'm waiting for
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