Focus last week was on the invasion of Ukraine and the resulting responses and sanctions from the US, UK, EU, and the world. The sanctions focused on political power players in Russia as well as isolating Russia’s financial system from the global economy. Later, it was announced sanctions would directly target Putin and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
Markets began the shortened week down significantly, though the tide turned midday Wednesday and the S&P 500 rallied from being down over 2% at the open to close up 1.50% and extended that rally on Friday, gaining another 2.24%.
Eyes were on energy given the importance of Russia energy supplies to Europe, though, similarly to equities, the tide turned in commodity prices over the week as well, with oil topping over $100 per barrel intraday on Thursday, before settling the week at $91.59, just $1.38 higher than the Friday prior. Natural gas largely followed the same playbook over the week.
January’s Personal Income and Personal Spending were higher than expected with Personal Income flat and spending rising 2.1%. Expectations were for income to fall a modest 0.3% and spending to rise 1.6%.
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