NEW YORK – Stocks around the world rebounded, the US dollar fell and oil prices dipped as investors welcomed talk of renewed diplomacy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and as coordinated Western sanctions left Russia’s energy sector largely untouched.
On Thursday, worries about the invasion lifted oil prices past $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014.
Wall Street’s indexes extended the previous session’s rally with Nasdaq and the S&P 500 registering gains for the week.
The MSCI World Index closed up 2.43 percent; for the week it was down 0.7 percent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine’s military to overthrow its political leaders and negotiate peace. Authorities in Kyiv called on citizens to help defend the capital.
EU countries agreed to freeze European assets of Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the White House announced plans for US sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded for faster and more forceful sanctions.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and Russia’s security concerns, and it welcomes direct Russia, Ukraine dialogue as soon as possible.
Russia said it was ready to send a delegation for talks with Ukraine, but US State Department spokesperson Ned Price called this an attempt to conduct diplomacy “at the barrel of a gun,”
“Markets went through a progression. They heard the word invasion Wednesday night and started selling. Then markets heard the word sanctions Thursday and started buying. Then they heard the word diplomacy on Friday and kept buying,” said John Augustine, chief investment officer at Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio.
