- Global financial markets remained volatile as US equities and oil prices fluctuated wildly in response to news about the Ukraine conflict.
- The S&P 500 index finished lower on Tuesday, lurching lower in the final hour of trade after a day that saw the benchmark climb nearly 2% and drop as much as 1%. The index fell about 3% on Monday, closing more than 12% below its all-time high set on January 3rd. In the nearly two weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, stocks, commodities, foreign currencies, and sovereign bonds have all swung dramatically, with investors hyper-aware of any shift in sentiment that could force a recalibration of asset valuations.
- The stock market in the US is a boiling pot of competing bets tied to the conflict, with large options positions necessitating continual rebalancing by dealers. Market makers rush to buy and sell stocks to keep their books neutral, a process known as hedging gamma, a term for a type of derivatives volatility. Small upward and downward swings, often triggered by erroneous or stale headlines, quickly become large swings as market makers rush to buy and sell stocks to keep their books neutral. It has the ability to magnify every news item at times.
- Sanctions and the war have roiled commodities, in particular, sending oil and other resources such as nickel and wheat soaring. That makes policymakers' job more difficult, as they must strike a fine balance between tightening to combat inflation while not jeopardizing the economy's recovery. Officials from the Federal Reserve will meet on March 16 to discuss interest rates.
- As US President Biden declared a ban on imports of Russian fossil fuels, including oil, stocks briefly fell to session lows and oil rose. The UK will match the move by announcing a ban on oil imports, however, it would continue to accept natural gas and coal into the country.