US equities fell for the first time in five days on Wed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 65.38 pts, or 0.19%, to close at 35,228.81. The S&P 500 index fell 0.63%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 1.21%. The small cap Russell 2000 dropped 1.97%.
The euro rallied against the US dollar to hit its highest since Mar 1, up 0.60% at 1.1152, on cautious optimism over peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The euro is a very heavy weight in the ICE dollar index (DXY). The DXY, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.62% to 97.792.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was a “positive factor” that Ukraine submitted its written proposals during the discussions in Istanbul, but added that “we can’t say there has been something promising or any breakthroughs”.
The 10-year Treasury note yield slipped 4.56 basis points (bps) to 2.3488%. European short-dated notes fell on trader bets for tighter ECB policy. The day after rising above 0% for the first time since 2014, Germany's two-year bond yield was last up 10 basis points (bps) at 0.066%.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Jun) contracts settled up $23.80, or 1.2%, at US$1,939.00/oz. May silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, rose 39 cents, or 1.6%, to end at US$25.113/oz.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up $3.22 at US$113.45/bbl and $3.58 at US$107.82/bbl respectively.
European equity markets finished mixed on Wed. The UK FTSE gained 0.55%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.74%, while the German DAX retreated 1.45%.