WTI crude futures steadied around $103 per barrel on Friday, after an 8% rally in the previous session as ongoing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine did not yield significant progress, raising fears of further sanctions and prolonged disruption to oil supply. A Kremlin spokesperson denying reports of major progress in peace talks over Ukraine, Putin’s speech against “traitors and scum” at home who helped the West and Biden calling Putin a “war criminal” all added to market jitters about an extended conflict. An IEA warning of a potential supply shortfall due to sanctions against Russian oil also pushed energy prices higher. Meanwhile, the US oil benchmark is still on track to drop for a second straight week, having fallen significantly from a recent high of $130.5 per barrel reached on Mar. 7 as traders continued to assess geopolitical and economic uncertainties.

New home prices for Canada grew by 1.1% from a month earlier in February of 2022, the most since May and up from a 0.9% increase in the prior month. Prices were up in 18 of the 27 census metropolitan areas surveyed and unchanged in 9, mainly attributed to persistently high construction costs and supply challenges. Year-on-year, new home prices advanced 10.9%, down slightly from an 11.8% surge in the previous month.

The unemployment rate in Brazil fell to 11.2% in the three months to January of 2022, from 12.1% in the three months to October of 2021 and slightly below market forecasts of 11.4%. It was the lowest jobless rate for the period in six years, as the unemployed population shrank by 858 thousand persons to 12.05 million, while the number of employed people increased by almost 1.5 million people to 95.43 million. Among sectors, the bulk of job gains came from commerce (+436 thousand), followed by public administration (+282 thousand) and information, communication and financial, real estate, professional and administrative (+239 thousand). Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate went up by 0.2 percentage points to 62.3% and the employment rate rose 0.7 percentage points to 55.3%.

European stocks were under selling pressure on Friday, with the DAX and the CAC 40 both losing more than 1% and the FTSE MIB sliding almost 3%, as traders digested interest rate decisions of major central banks and Russia-Ukraine talks. Across sectors, auto stocks led declines with a 2.6%, while in Germany’s DAX, real estate firm Vonovia led the rout with a 3.3% fall. Russian officials poured cold water on optimism for a cease-fire deal, stating that news of progress in the discussions were false, while in the US, the Pentagon warned that Russia could threaten to use nuclear weapons if the war drags on. All major stock indices were set to end the week with a rebound, with Frankfurt’s DAX headed for a 3.7% rise, and the pan-European Stoxx 600 up 4%.

The Central Bank of Russia held its benchmark interest rate at 20% as expected during its March 2022 meeting, saying the 115bps hike in February helped sustain financial stability and prevented uncontrolled price rises. Policymakers increased borrowing costs to the highest in almost two years in February amid the broadening fallout of Western sanctions in retaliation against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The central bank said the Russian economy is entering the phase of a large-scale structural transformation, which will be accompanied by a temporary but inevitable period of increased inflation, that is expected to return to 4% in 2024.

The trade balance in the Euro Area swung to a €27.2 billion deficit in January of 2022 from a €10.7 billion surplus a year earlier. It is a record high trade gap as imports jumped 44.3% to €226.7 billion, driven by a surge in energy purchases. Exports increased at a softer 18.9% to €199.5 billion. Considering the EU, imports were up 52.4%, with energy imports soaring 133%. The energy gap more than doubled to €37.9 billion from €15 billion in January of 2021. Purchases increased mostly from Norway (160%), the UK (112.3%) and Russia (90%). Exports were up 19.6%, with sales rising the most to both the US (25.5%) and the UK (25.9%) but falling to China (-0.6%).