Overall, extreme levels of fear in the market seems to have morphed into something more resembling concern. For example, the Cboe Volatility Index fell from its 2022 peak of 36, which it hit Monday, to around 30 on Friday, a sign of easing tensions. Meanwhile, while the price of WTI crude oil slipped from Sundayβs multiyear high $130 of barrel to $109 a pop. Markets have been expecting heavy restrictions on Russian oil, some of which the U.S. has already imposed, and that would reduce the global supply and bring about even more burdensome inflation. That hurt tech stocks. For the past few weeks, the 10-year yield has traded between 1.72% and 2%, as traders moved into the bond for safety when Russia headlines were uglyβand out of it when headlines improved. Now, the yield is touching its pandemic-era high. If the yield breaks above that level, that could signal that itβs on a sustainable path higher. Higher long-dated bond yields make future profits less valuableβand many tech companies are valued on the basis of profits forecast for many years in the future. The Security Service of Ukraine said in a tweet that it was able to effectively target Russian convoys near Kyiv because of messages sent to an official Telegram bot account called "STOP Russian War." Investors took profits on Friday while they could ahead of the weekend, explained Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research. Saturday and Sunday could easily bring unfortunate news on the war frontβand traders would rather be able to sell any recent winnings at Fridayβs earlier prices than wait for a potentially lower price at Mondayβs open. Markets continued to grapple with the economic and corporate earnings implications relating to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. βWe have a ton of uncertainty right now,β said Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist and portfolio manager at Hightower Advisors. βWeβre dealing with a war, weβre dealing with inflation. We donβt know what it means to earnings.β
from cn
