Indices Rallied on Wednesday, Focus Now on ECB and US CPI

On Wednesday, Russia's Foreign Ministry dropped what had appeared to be a key element of its war objectives as Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow doesn't want to occupy Ukraine or overthrow its government. 

Later, Ihor Zhovkva, deputy chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the country was willing to discuss adopting neutral status in return for security guarantees, making Ukraine's issue of joining NATO a moot point.

EU indices rose 5-7%, while US benchmarks were 2-4% stronger on Wednesday's close.

The focus of investors will now shift to the ECB decision, which is expected to change monetary policy settings to more hawkish, considering the recent rise in inflation, which will get even worse in the following weeks due to the conflict in Ukraine.

Additionally, at the same time, the US CPI inflation for February is due, seen rising further to 7.9% yearly, while the core inflation is expected to accelerate to 6.4%. So, again, soaring inflation will likely prompt the Fed to be more aggressive in tightening monetary policy.

In commodities, we saw some declines yesterday, with oil falling to 110 USD, gold dropping below 2,000 USD, and copper weakening to 4.6 USD.