Asia Pacific stocks were down on Monday morning. The Shanghai composite is down 2.15% at 3,373.19. Overall, the Singapore MSCI down 1.38% at 303.40. Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index down 3.56% at 21,064.00. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 down 3.41% at 25,210.00, while the Topix index is down 3.27% at 1791.50. South Korea’s Kospi down 2.29% to 2651.31. Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 1.02% at 7038.60.

European equities Friday closing. The DAX futures contract in Germany traded down 4.41% at 13094.54, CAC 40 futures down 4.97% at 6061.66 and the UK 100 futures contract in the U.K. down 3.48% at 6,987.15.

In U.S. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.53% at 33614.81. The S&P 500 down 0.79% at 4328.88 and the Nasdaq 100 down 1.41% at 13837.83, NYSE closes down 0.97% at 16129.66.

In the Forex market, GBPUSD down 0.12% at 1.3211. The USDJPY up 0.22% at 114.996. The USDCHF up 0.47% at 0.9210. EURUSD down 0.53% at 1.0872, EUR/GBP down 0.29% at 0.8230. The USD/CNY up 0.01% at 6.3194 at the time of writing.

In the commodity market U.S. Gold futures up 0.65% at $1,983.65. Elsewhere, Silver futures up 0.43% at $25.790 per ounce, Platinum up 1.78% at $1143.50 per ounce, and Palladium up 5.12% at $3159.50.

Crude Oil up on Monday; Brent crude oil up 9.88% at $129.53 per barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (CLc1) up 8.98% at $123.169.

In the Cryptocurrency Markets, Bitcoin at 38199.98 down 0.62%, Ethereum down 0.33% at 2541.09, Litecoin at 99.95 down 1.08%, at the time of writing.

TOP STOCKS TO WATCH OUT TODAY:

Kroger Co. up 6.969% at $58.94, Mosaic Co. up 7.492% at $59.83, CSX Corp. up 6.06% to $37.43, Coterra Energy Inc. up 4.649% at $26.11, PVH Corp. down 11.573% to $79.16, Micron Technology Inc. down 8.152% at $81.91.

Economic news:

US: The United States and European allies are exploring banning imports of Russian oil, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday, and the White House coordinated with key Congressional committees moving forward with their own ban.

Europe relies on Russia for crude oil and natural gas but has become more open to the idea of banning Russian products in the past 24 hours, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters on Sunday.

Meanwhile, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi also said in a Sunday letter that the chamber is “exploring” legislation to ban the import of Russian oil and that Congress intends to enact this week $10 billion in aid for Ukraine in response to Moscow’s military invasion of its neighbour.

The White House is also talking with the Senate Finance Committee and House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee about a potential ban, the source said.

Still, Blinken also stressed the importance of maintaining steady oil supplies globally.

Eurozone: The European Central Bank will wait until the last months of this year for its first interest rate rise in over a decade, with fewer economists in a Reuters poll taken after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now expecting an earlier move.

That consensus from a slight majority of forecasters, 27 of 45, polled March 1-4, comes despite news that inflation in the euro zone hit 5.8% in February, defying the central bank’s own expectations for a decline.

Only six economists expected the first hike to come sooner, in the third quarter, down from 16 in a poll last month.

Of the 33 of 45 respondents who expected the deposit rate to rise from a record low of -0.50% this year, 18 saw it at -0.25% at year-end, nine had it lower than that and six saw it higher.

That fragmented view underscores the central bank’s communications challenge at its March 10 policy meeting.

Indeed, expectations for ECB rates stand in stark contrast with other major central banks, which are likely to have delivered several hikes by year-end. The Bank of England has already lifted rates twice in its last two consecutive meetings.

Important Data: JAPAN Current Account n.s.a. (Jan) today at 18:50 this time estimated -0.880T, previously which was -0.371T. AUSTRALIA NAB Business Confidence (Feb) today at 19:30 previously which was 3. Germany Retail Sales (MoM) (Jan) today at 2:00 this time estimated 1.8%, previously which was -5.5%. Germany Factory Orders (MoM) (Jan) today at 2:00 this time estimated 1.0%, previously which was 2.8%. UK Halifax House Price Index (MoM) (Feb) today at 2:00 this time estimated 1.0%, previously which was 0.3%.

Technical Summary

GBPUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1.3216, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.3168 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.3252

EURUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1.0878, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.0861 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.0900

USDJPY

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 114.993, TAKE PROFIT AT 114.754 AND STOP LOSS AT 115.211

USDCHF

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 0.9205, TAKE PROFIT AT 0.9190 AND STOP LOSS AT 0.9219

EURO STOXX 50

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 3448.00 TAKE PROFIT AT 3442.00 AND STOP LOSS AT 3455.00

WTI CRUDE OIL

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 125.14 TAKE PROFIT AT 126.04 AND STOP LOSS AT 124.83

GOLD

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 1990.37, TAKE PROFIT AT 1993.27 AND STOP AT 1986.87

ETHEREUM

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 2510.71 TAKE PROFIT AT 2337.95 AND STOP AT 2625.26