US indices rallied yesterday amid somewhat more optimistic news on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. S&P 500 gained 2.57%, Dow Jones added 2.00% and Nasdaq moved 3.59% higher. Russell 2000 jumped 2.71%

Indices from Asia-Pacific followed into footsteps of US peers and also moved higher. Nikkei gained 3.9%, S&P/ASX 200 moved 1.1% higher and Kospi jumped 1.7%. Indices from China traded 0.3-2.2% higher

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

Ukraine President Zelensky said he is ready to make some compromises, like agreed on neutral status, but said that Russia needs to compromise as well

United States warned that recent comments from Russian politicians signal that there is risk of Russia performing false flag operation involving chemical weapons

US House of Representatives approved $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine. US House also voted to ban purchases of Russian oil, gas and coal

US Energy Secretary called onto domestic companies to boost oil and natural gas production

Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservatist, won South Korean presidential elections and will take office in May. It is said that under Yoon leadership, South Korea may harden its approach to China and North Korea

Guy Debelle, Deputy Governor of RBA, resigned from the central bank post and will pursue a career in the private sector. Debelle was sometimes seen as the next RBA Governor

Amazon announced a 20-to-1 stock split and $10 billion buyback scheme. Split will take place in June

Cryptocurrencies are pulling back following yesterday’s jump. Bitcoin drops 6% and trades below $40,000 again

Oil trades slightly higher while precious metals pull back

NZD and AUD are the best performing major currencies while JPY and EUR lag the most