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Fear of war on the stock exchange:
The Ukraine crisis is coming to a head, Dax and Dow Jones are disappearing
Photo: A3602 Frank Rumpenhorst/ dpa
The escalating conflict in Ukraine is causing another setback on the world's stock exchanges and at the same time is driving up energy prices.
A feared imminent invasion of Russia in the neighboring country had already sent the courses on the US stock markets plummeting on Friday.
The Dax will follow this slide on Monday morning with clear losses.
Shortly before Xetra started, the leading German index was already 1.5 percent lower at 15,191 points.
The United States had recently issued urgent warnings, which US President
Joe Biden
's security adviser ,
Jake Sullivan
, explained again to the CNN television channel on Sunday.
In the past ten days or so, Russian troop build-up has accelerated and Russian forces have advanced closer to the border with Ukraine, from where they could launch military action very quickly.
Sullivan again warned that an invasion of Ukraine could begin at any time.
Chancellor
Olaf Scholz
travels to Kiev and Moscow at the beginning of the week to find a solution to the crisis.
"There is no relief in the Ukraine conflict in sight," said Commerzbank's financial market experts in the morning.
With the conflict, a second stress factor is growing, after concerns about interest rates in particular had recently spread among investors.
Otherwise, the week starts relatively calmly.
There is no new economic data and the reporting season for companies initially has little to offer.
Asian stock markets plummet
Growing fears of Russia invading Ukraine also unsettled investors in Asia.
Markets have already been in turmoil since high US inflation sparked speculation the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates by a full 50 basis points in March.
"Broad-based inflationary pressures have led to a synchronized shift to tightening policies around the world sooner than expected," said Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan.
"However, we do not expect this to translate into aggressive action in March."
Rather, it reflects the uncertainties surrounding Omicron, geopolitical tensions and the loss of purchasing power from high inflation - all factors that would weigh heavily on growth in the current quarter.
The Nikkei index, which comprises 225 values, was 2.1 percent lower at 27,110 points.
The broader
Topix index
fell 1.7 percent to 1,930 points.
The
Shanghai
stock exchange was down 0.6 percent.
The index of the most important companies in
Shanghai and Shenzhen
lost 0.7 percent.
Bitcoin remains under pressure
The world's best-known digital currency Bitcoin has initially interrupted its recent soaring.
Bitcoin was last listed on the Bitstamp trading platform at $42,200, significantly less than in the middle of last week.
The cryptocurrency has been under pressure since the beginning of the year.
In November 2021, Bitcoin reached a record high of $69,000.
Oil Prices At Multi-Year Highs - Brent Nears $100 Mark
Oil prices continue to soar.
On Monday morning, the two most important types of oil again marked multi-year highs.
A barrel (159 liters) of the North Sea Brent cost up to 96.07 US dollars, for a barrel of the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) variety, up to 94.92 dollars had to be paid.
These are the highest prices since autumn 2014.
Most recently, a barrel of Brent cost $95.33, 89 cents more than on Friday.
A barrel of WTI was trading at $94.24, up $1.14 from before the weekend.
The round mark of 100 dollars for a barrel of crude oil, which numerous commodity experts expect to exceed, is getting closer and closer.
Oil prices are being driven by a number of factors.
The tensions on the Ukrainian-Russian border are causing uncertainty.
Since Russia is one of the largest oil producers in the world, the risk of an escalation leads to a risk premium on the oil market.
In addition, the rather tight supply and the solid demand have been causing prices to rise for some time.
With news agencies