Global financial markets, including FBMKLCI, tumbled last week after Russia launched a fullscale invasion of Ukraine. Russia, which has expressed its strong disagreement over Ukraine’s intention to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), has warned the former founding member of the Soviet Union to renounce this ambition and accept its sovereignty over Crimea.
The million-dollar question now is whether this will evolve into a broader military conflict between nations or can be contained via tougher sanctions or resolved through Ukraine’s submission to Russian demands.
However, the Russia-Ukraine event has resulted in declines in US Treasury yields as investors dumped risk assets in favour of safe haven assets such as US Treasuries. At one time, the yield of the 10-year UST dopped circa 12bps to below 1.90%. Meanwhile, the crisis has also pushed the Brent crude oil to cross USD100/bbl for the first time since 2014.
What does it mean to the Malaysian market?