Asian equities are trading with a mild positive bias as the region reflects on the sanctions response to Russia’s actions on Ukraine and after the S&P 500 closed in correction territory. Liquidity in the region could be limited as the Japanese markets are shut for a holiday. Currently, on US sanctions on Russia, they came in on the less-than-feared side of participants’ anticipations. Nevertheless, later reports via US officials stressed that more acute options such as sanctions on major Russian banks and SWIFT payment system action were on the table if a further invasion of Ukraine occurs.
The global macro price action landscape continues to be driven by short-term geopolitical developments. On the radar, a US satellite company said new images show new deployments in Belarus of over 100 vehicles and dozens of troop tents. Also, a new field hospital was added to a military fort in western Russia. Worth keeping the agricultural sector’s radar as some wheat futures saw the largest daily gains in years amid the possibility of Russian/Ukraine supply coming off the market. Nickel and aluminium hit multi-year highs on similar choruses, with Russian production accounting for 7% and 6% of global production, respectively.
