US Secretary State Antony Blinken (left) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (right) agreed to meet for further talks about Ukraine.
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- US futures rose Friday, after the Dow Jones suffered its worst session in months the previous day.
- The mood brightened somewhat after the US and Russia agreed to hold talks about the Ukraine crisis.
- Russia has amassed troops at Ukraine’s border and could invade within days, the US has warned.
US stock futures rose Friday after the US and Russia agreed to further talks over the Ukraine crisis, setting the stage for the Dow to come back from its worst session since November.
Futures on the S&P 500 were 0.51% higher, Dow Jones futures were up 0.39%, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.72% as of 6 a.m. ET, suggesting stocks will open in the green.
On Thursday, the Dow tumbled 1.78%, or 622 points, to log its worst day since November, after US President Joe Biden said Russia could invade Ukraine within days.
The gloomy mood brightened somewhat Friday, after US Secretary State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to meet for further talks about the situation.
The meeting “may help avoid a de-risking ahead of the weekend, as without it I suspect that few traders would have wanted to go home too long,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said in a note.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops around the border of its neighbor Ukraine. It has demanded that the Western security alliance NATO never admit Ukraine and roll back its eastward expansion.
The threat of war, particularly involving a major energy producer such as Russia, has roiled global markets. Stocks were already being buffeted by expectations that central banks will turn off the stimulus they brought in during the coronavirus crisis.
Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower overnight, but pared some losses on the news of a US-Russia meeting. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished 1.88% lower, but China’s CSI 300 rose 0.48%.
Europe’s continent-wide Stoxx 600 index was up 0.14% in morning trading.
Read more: An investment chief for BNY Mellon Wealth Management breaks down why he’s expecting stocks to bounce back by 8 to 10% this year despite recent volatility — and shares 3 investing strategies to excel in the current mid-cycle bull market
Bond yields, which move inversely to prices, gained slightly Friday, after falling the previous day when investors went in search of safe-haven assets. The yield on the key 10-year US Treasury note stood a basis point higher at 1.972%.
Gold also rallied Thursday, but slipped in European trading Friday. Spot gold was down 0.59% to $1,887.24 an ounce, although it remained around its highest level since June.
In the riskier corners of the market, bitcoin was down close to 6% Friday to below $41,000 on the Coinbase exchange. Cryptocurrencies are increasingly trading in line with fast-growing technology stocks, which have suffered as the Federal Reserve has prepared to raise interest rates, ending the stimulus that boosted risky bets in 2020 and 2021.
Although stock-market investors remained nervous, plenty have insisted the selling has gone too far.
“Despite the recent volatility, it’s important to remember that we are still in an environment of robust economic and earnings growth, and in our base case we expect upside for equity markets over the balance of the year,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management.
However, investors continued to punish weak earnings reports. Roku’s shares were down more 25% in pre-market trading after the video-streaming company revealed weak revenue forecasts.
Read the original article on Business Insider 
