Bulls return following Russia/Ukraine ceasefire agreement

The bullish sentiment that arrived this morning continued into the afternoon despite weak data from the US.

Waves of relief seemed to roll over the markets as the Ukraine/Russia ceasefire agreement removed one more cloud of uncertainty. This was nowhere as true as in the Eurozone with the DAX currently displaying the potential to close at a new all-time high. The EU summit, after a few hours of delay, has begun and should see further discussions of last night’s Eurogroup failure to find a solution to the Greek-debt issue. However, with positivity in the air the markets didn’t dwell of the unresolved issues surrounding Greece and instead focused on its eastern-European success. If this is how well the Eurozone markets react to a tentative ceasefire, who knows how high they could go if the Greek crisis is resolved with a minimal loss of vital organs.

The news that the European Central Bank is once more lending a hand to Greek banks by increasing the liquidity available to the institutions saw the euro grow its gains against the dollar after an already strong performance by the Eurozone currency this Thursday afternoon. This caused the gains gold had begun to make to stall at around $1220 per ounce, a dismal figure for a commodity that was near $1300 a few weeks ago.

After being buoyed by Carney’s pro-rate hike comments, the FTSE was lifted higher on a flurry of good news. Firstly, Rio Tinto beat full year revenue expectations, despite weak iron ore prices hurting the company, seeing a rally in the mining sector with both Vedanta and KAZ Minerals posting gains. Next was the rise and rise of Coca-Cola HBC, the world’s second biggest bottler and a company that has keen interests in its key region Russia; the ceasefire agreement has been taken as its own personal rocket causing the company’s stocks to rise by nearly 7%. Finally, as Brent Crude keeps knocking on the door of $58 per barrel, the FTSE was allowed a respite from its overly sensitive oil sector; however this wasn’t enough to save the ever-volatile Afren, with the company’s latest plunge dragging it back down to £7.25.

The Dow Jones is currently on track to close at its 2015 high, despite disappointing retails sales and jobless claims figures. Whilst these issues once again pose questions for the feasibility of the much discussed interest rate rise by the Fed, the US markets dismissed these potential downers to instead focus, like the Eurozone, on the positive progress between Ukraine and Russia. However, with there still lingering issues in both regions, it will be interesting to see whether there are any signs of a hangover come tomorrow morning.