EU governments will consider whether to impose an oil embargo on Russia

US stock markets: Wall Street's three major indexes closed higher on Friday, with the biggest boost from recently battered technology stocks, after talks between U.S President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping over the Ukraine crisis ended without big surprises. 

Investors were also relieved by slowing gains in oil prices as they continued to digest the Federal Reserve's Wednesday interest rate increase and its aggressive plan for further hikes aimed at combating soaring inflation. U.S. President Joe Biden warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a call that there would be "consequences" if Beijing gave material support to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the White House said. Both sides stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. 

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While President Xi Jinping called on NATO nations to hold a dialogue with Moscow, he did not assign blame to Russia for the invasion. Wall Street's three main indexes boasted their biggest weekly percentage gains since early November 2020 with the S&P adding 6.2% while the Dow rose 5.5% and the NASDAQ jumping 8.2%.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.80%. The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc., which rose 3.96% or 8.33 points to trade at 218.74 at the close. Meanwhile, Nike Inc. added 2.98% or 3.80 points to end at 131.21 and Visa Inc. Class A was up 2.65% or 5.65 points to 219.10 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Verizon Communications Inc., which fell 2.39% or 1.25 points to trade at 51.11 at the close. Johnson & Johnson declined 1.11% or 1.97 points to end at 174.83 and Dow Inc. was down 0.67% or 0.42 points to 62.42.

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NASDAQ 100

The NASDAQ index gained 2.05%. The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Connect Biopharma Holdings Ltd which rose 54.21% to 4.95, Rezolute Inc. which was up 52.42% to settle at 4.10 and Redbox Entertainment Inc. which gained 50.28% to close at 2.69. The worst performers were Bt Brands Inc. which was down 39.22% to 1.55 in late trade, Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc. which lost 31.63% to settle at 0.21 and Nymox Pharmaceutical Corp which was down 28.57% to 1.35 at the close.

Oil price - Crude Oil market, Brent Oil market

Oil prices jumped more than $3 today, with Brent above $111 a barrel, as European Union nations consider joining the United States in a Russian oil embargo, while a weekend attack on Saudi oil facilities caused jitters. U.S West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $3.98, or 3.8%, to $108.68, extending a 1.7% jump last Friday. 

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Prices moved higher ahead of talks this week between European Union governments and U.S. President Joe Biden for a series of summits that aim to harden the West's response to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. EU governments will consider whether to impose an oil embargo on Russia. Early on Monday, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Iryna Vershchuk, said there was no chance the country's forces would surrender in the besieged eastern port city of Mariupol. 

With little sign of the conflict easing, the focus returned to whether the market would be able to replace Russian barrels hit by sanctions.

Precious and Base Metals - Gold price, Silver price, Palladium price

Gold prices rose today, lifted by demand for the safe-haven metal as the Ukraine crisis showed no signs of abatement, although the gains were capped by the U.S Federal Reserve's plan of aggressive measures to combat inflation. 

Spot gold rose 0.2% to $1,924.45 per ounce. U.S gold futures were down 0.3% at $1,924.00. A little bit of safe-haven flows is going into gold today because Ukraine officially rejected the deadline from Russia. Ukraine today rejected Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol, where residents are besieged with little food, water, and power and fierce fighting shows little sign of easing. 

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Preventing further gains in the metal, two of the Fed's most hawkish policymakers said on Friday the central bank needs to take more aggressive steps to combat inflation. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said he wants to raise rates to 1.75% to 2% this year, according to an essay published on the regional Fed bank's website. 

Higher interest rates tend to raise the opportunity cost of holding non-interest paying gold. Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, rose 0.8% to 1,082.44 tonnes on Friday — a high since March 2021. Palladium, used by automakers in catalytic converters to curb emissions, gained 2.8% at $2,560.71 per ounce. It had hit a record high of $3,440.76 on March 7, driven by fears of supply disruptions from top producer Russia. 

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The auto-catalyst metal is responding better to the events unfolding in Ukraine because with Ukraine officially saying no to Russia, it puts peace talks on the back foot, and of course that brings further concerns over supplying constraints moving forward. Spot silver was flat at $24.96 per ounce, platinum rose 0.4% to $1,025.83.

Traditional Agricultures - Corn futures, Wheat futures,  Soybean futures

Wheat rose today in the Asian trading session for the second session in three, as the Russia-Ukraine war and dry weather in parts of the U.S grain belt raised concerns over global supplies. Corn and soybeans climbed about 1% each. Wheat prices have declined since hitting their peak earlier in March, which is generating some buying interest. But the war is not anywhere close to being getting over and supplies from the Black Sea region remain an issue.

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