European stocks are seen opening sharply lower on Monday as the Russian-Ukraine conflict showed no sign of cooling, triggering the fastest-growing humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. <\/p>\n
Commodities racked up more scorching price gains, oil briefly touched $139 a barrel and the euro extended its slide, hitting parity against the safe-haven Swiss franc, after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday the United States and European allies are exploring banning imports of Russian oil.<\/p>\n
The dollar continued its recent rally while U.S. 10-year yields were down at 1.69 percent, having already dropped 23 basis points last week. <\/p>\n
Inflationary fears triggered a rush for safe-haven assets, with gold hitting the $2,000-level for the first time in a year-and-a-half.<\/p>\n
Traders are pricing in a slower pace of rate rises from the Federal Reserve this year, though a March hike is still seen as a done deal.<\/p>\n
Asian markets<\/span> sank as Russia and Ukraine hold a third round of talks today about ending hostilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his campaign in Ukraine will not end until Kyiv stops fighting.<\/p>\n The United States has asked its citizens to leave Russia immediately after Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia.<\/p>\n In economic releases, investors will keep a close eye on China’s and the United States’ inflation numbers this week for further clues related to policy tightening.<\/p>\n China has set an ambitious economic growth target for the year, putting the spotlight back on fiscal stimulus.<\/p>\n China’s exports grew more than expected in January to February period, figures from the General Administration of Customs revealed earlier today. <\/p>\n Exports increased 16.3 percent on a yearly basis, bigger than the expected growth of 15.0 percent. At the same time, imports advanced 15.5 percent, but slower than economists’ forecast of +16.5 percent.<\/p>\n U.S. stocks fell on Friday as a surge in commodity prices over fears of supply disruptions overshadowed positive U.S. employment data for February.<\/p>\n Data showed non-farm payroll employment spiked by 678,000 jobs in February after an increase of upwardly revised 481,000 jobs in January.<\/p>\n The jobless rate dipped to 3.8 percent in February from 4.0 percent in January but the wage growth slowed a little in the month.<\/p>\n The Dow dropped half a percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.8 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.7 percent.<\/p>\n European stocks nosedived on Friday to close near one-year lows after Russian forces took control of Europe’s largest nuclear plant and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc was ready to hit Russia with more sanctions.<\/p>\n The pan European Stoxx 600 slumped 3.6 percent. The German DAX plunged 4.4 percent, France’s CAC 40 index plummeted 5 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 sank 3.5 percent. <\/p>\n