U.S. equities declined whiles treasury yield advanced

U.S. stocks declined on Thursday with Nasdaq leading the way down, as bond yields marched further ahead of a likely 75 basis points interest rate hike by the Fed Reserve next week.

Subsequently, Dow Jones declined 0.6% to finish at 30,961.82, S&P 500 declined 1.1% to finish at 3,901.82 while Nasdaq 100 declined 1.4% to finish at 11,552.36. The 10-year yield Treasury advanced 4.7 basis points to 3.458%. Gold spot price declined $16.40 to $1,692.70 per ounce while WTI crude oil fell $3.28 to $85.20 per barrel.

Ukraine President Zelenskiy made an urgent appeal to allies to supply additional air and missile defense systems to repel Russia’s invasion and US President Joe Biden said the US would give Ukraine as much as $600 million in additional weaponry from Defense Department stockpiles. In the meantime, Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations in the country’s east, increasing the pressure on Russian positions in Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukrainian ground attacks were reported northwest of Kharkiv, near Ukrainian bridgehead over the Inhales River and south of Kherson-Dnepropetrovsk border. In economic news, all eyes today are on the meeting of the Russian Central Bank with an interest rate announcement due later today. Although, most analysts expect a 0.5% reduction from 8% down to 7.5%, the latest pickup in inflationary expectations makes some predict a hold instead of the sixth straight decrease. Governor Elvira Nabiulllina will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. Moscow time. Russian stock market fluctuated this morning as investors await the central bank’s decision with both IMOEX and RTSI currently down 0.12% to 2,443 and 0.48% to 1,281 respectively. Lukoil and Sberbank were among the worst performers along with Rosneft, after Germany said it was taking over the oil company’s German business.  Property developer PIK defied the selloff rising as much as 2.5%. Russian ruble was slightly off this morning with USDRUB up 0.23% to 60.03 ad EURRUB up 0.11% to 59.89 gaining more than 1% for this week. The end of tax period contributed to the ruble strength. Russian government bond index was up 0.1% to 135.76. Russia sold 10 billion rubles worth of OFZ this week maturing in 2031 with investors offering 2.48 times the amount sold. 6.9% OFZ bonds were sold at a price of 88.7452 and yield of 8.94%.

SSA opens weaker as rates tick higher while Brent is down. Oilers consequently seeing much of the early selling having led losses on Thursday. NGERIA (-.375) seeing more selling on the long end at the open; August inflation came at 20.5% YoY, a 17-year high. Elsewhere, President Ruto scrapped fuel subsidies on petrol pushing prices up 13% following up on one of his election pledges; KENINT (-.25) at the open.