Sujata Rao gives a look at tomorrow’s markets

The U.S. witnessed its greatest one-day increase since June 2020, while oil dropped 13%. It looks like another memorable day.

The world stocks are now up nearly half a percentage after the meeting between Russia’s foreign ministers and Ukraine’s foreign ministers on Thursday.

The gains are not convincing, as European futures have been slightly lower and Wall Street has so far been tipped to open lower. The UAE’s offer of additional supply by the OPEC+ group has pushed oil prices down.

The European market is particularly nervous before the meeting of European Central Bank. They will need to tread a fine line between protecting growth and tackling inflation.

The ECB had been on course to end money printing stimulus before Russia invaded Ukraine. This would have opened the door to interest rate increases. The Russia-related economic disaster is only getting worse, and inflation within the bloc has risen to more than twice its 2% target. This is due to a weaker euro.

Apart from the ECB meeting at Frankfurt, traders will be keeping an eye on Versailles as a meeting of EU leaders begins later that day. While they will make plans to withdraw the bloc from Russian energy, markets want to see any details about additional fiscal stimulus plans.

In the United States, February inflation will be 7.8% in year-on-year. This is higher than January’s record 7.5% for four decades. However, gasoline prices in the United States have risen significantly since then. This means that a print of this magnitude may reaffirm bets on a 50-basis-point increase in interest rates at Federal Reserve’s March 15-16 meeting.

Finally, Russian companies are continuing to flee Russia. Rio Tinto (NYSE :), Japan’s miner Sony Nintendo and (NYSE:) are the most recent to announce their departures. This comes at a price. McDonald’s claims that the temporary closing of Russian outlets will result in a loss of $50 million per month.

These are the key developments expected to give more direction for markets Thursday

Record-breaking rise in wholesale prices for Japan

RICS Housing Survey

-ECB meeting

-U.S. CPI/initial jobless

Auction of 30-year bonds in the United States

Peru likely to increase interest rates 50 bps