Rising energy prices and uncertainty over the impact of economic sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to set the tone for financial markets on Wednesday, although Wall Street’s main stock market rose at the start of trading, recovering from successive losses. .
The S&P 500 was about half a percent higher at the start of trading after falling 1.8 percent earlier in the week.
Oil and natural gas prices in Europe continued to rise rapidly. Brent oil, the global benchmark, rose 6 percent to about $ 111 a barrel. In early December, it traded for about $ 65 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate, a gauge widely followed in the United States, rose more than 5 percent to about $ 109 a barrel.
On Wednesday, OPEC and other oil producers, including Russia, refused to increase production above what they had agreed in July, confirming an increase of 400,000 barrels per day in April. This increase was not considered sufficient to cool prices and comes after the release of emergency reserves on Tuesday by countries belonging to the International Energy Agency, including the United States, also failed to record prices.
European natural gas futures jumped nearly 60 percent at one point before falling to less than 170 euros per megawatt-hour, up nearly 40 percent. The European natural gas market is particularly volatile because Russia is a major supplier of more than a third of the European Union’s gas.
The sharp jump in energy prices does not appear to be linked to folded supplies from Russia – data from Ukraine’s national gas operator show normal operations, for example – but market participants fear that contracts with Russian gas and oil suppliers could lead to sanctions Western sanctions, despite efforts, protect the energy business from sanctions.
Shares in Asia were generally lower, with Hang Seng in Hong Kong down 1.8 percent. In Europe, the mood was more mixed. Stoxx Europe 600 rose about 0.4 percent.
Russia’s stock market closed on Wednesday for the third day in a row. And Sberbank Europe, the European unit of Russia’s largest retail bank, has been ordered to close by the European Central Bank, which warned two days ago that the company was facing collapse.
A parade of Western countries has announced it is withdrawing from Russia or closing services or plants there, including Airbus and Ford Motor. Other manufacturers, such as Volkswagen and BMW, failed to obtain the necessary parts from Ukraine, forcing the temporary shutdown of European plants.
Separately, investors are considering remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell, who suggested that the central bank will raise interest rates at its meeting later this month, despite uncertainty about the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine.
Mr Powell said in a statement prepared to be handed over to the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that the Fed would have to be “agile” in pursuing an appropriate monetary policy, as the effects on the US economy of the war in Ukraine remain. unclear.
Yields on 10-year US government treasury bonds, a benchmark for lending spending across the economy, rose six basis points, or 0.06 percentage points, to 1.79 percent.