US indices finished yesterday’s trading mixed. S&P 500 dropped 0.25%, Dow Jones moved 0.49% lower while Nasdaq gained 0.41%. Russell 2000 gained 0.35%

Stocks in Asia traded higher on Tuesday. Nikkei gained 1.2%, S&P/ASX 200 moved 0.7% higher and Kospi added 0.8%. Indices from China traded mostly higher

DAX futures point to a lower opening of the European cash session today

Ukraine-Russia talks yesterday yielded no progress but sides agreed to hold more talks soon

More news of Russia targeting civilians emerges. US intelligence claims that Putin has grown frustrated after lack of success in the first days and may order Russian troops to become much more violent

The United States designated 12 Russian diplomats as persona non grata and expelled them.

Canada became the first developed nation to ban imports of Russian oil. However, Canada imports only a little of Russian oil and therefore such a move was easier to make than in case of European countries

More companies decide to cut Russian ties, following BP move to divest stake in Rosneft. Shell announced that it will exit all investments in Russia, joint ventures with Gazprom as well as halt its participation in Nord Stream 2 project. Mastercard blocked numerous Russian financial institutions from its payment network

Russian central bank announce that there will be no session on Russian stock and derivatives markets today as well

Iran said yesterday that nuclear talks are almost finished. However, US said that Iran started making new demands and situation got complicated

The Reserve Bank of Australia left rates unchanged at today’s meeting, as expected. Bank repeated that it will no hike rates until inflation is sustainably in 2-3% target range

Chinese manufacturing PMI increased from 50.1 to 50.2 in February (exp. 49.9). Services PMI jumped from 51.1 to 51.6 (exp. 50.9)

Oil and natural gas are trading higher today. Brent trades near $100 per barrel

Precious metals trade mixed. Platinum and palladium gain while silver and gold drop

AUD and NZD are the best performing major currencies while EUR, CHF and JPY are lagging the most