The key US stock market indices - Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 - closed Monday with new growth, but growth is slowing down. March 22 was a rather empty day in terms of fundamental and macroeconomic events. During the day, only the speeches of Christine Lagarde and Jerome Powell took place, which did not affect the mood of traders in any way. Although there was no reaction, Powell said that if necessary, the Fed could raise the rate by 0.5% at once. However, these words of his did not lead to a fall in the stock market or the strengthening of the US currency. Recall that the euro and the pound finished the day without losses yesterday.
Although traders and investors have recently received quite a large amount of important information, all the attention of the markets is still focused on geopolitics. Unfortunately, the end of the military conflict in Ukraine is still very far away. Recently, the intensity of fighting and shelling has decreased, which is explained by the lack of advance of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine. In addition, it should be noted that anti-Russian sanctions have already begun to put pressure on the Russian economy. And we are not talking about sugar now, the battles for which are taking place in many supermarkets. Yesterday, it became known that two factories in Russia, which are engaged in the repair and production of tanks, have suspended their work due to a shortage of components. Russia managed to avoid default, as regular payments on government bonds and foreign debts were made on March 15 and 16. However, according to many experts, this only delayed the default but did not cancel it. Thus, the military potential begins to decline rapidly. Nevertheless, Moscow is not going to stop firing until a peace treaty with Kyiv is officially signed. And there is little progress on key issues.
It should also be noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin refused a personal meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Dmitry Peskov explained this decision by saying that there is nothing to discuss at the moment since the negotiating groups are not moving towards a peace agreement. All this potentially gives several more weeks of military conflict and it is completely unclear how both sides are going to get out of it if neither the first nor the second want to give in. So far, everything is going to the fact that it will be a very long war, as in Chechnya or Afghanistan, or a frozen conflict, as in the Donbas. Naturally, it is not beneficial to anyone. We have already said that even the European Union, which is not directly involved in this conflict, has announced that countries may face an energy and food crisis. However, this week the same European Union may approve the fifth package of sanctions, which may include an oil embargo.
