Ukrainian Negotiator: Russia and Ukraine will resume peace talks online on April 1, according to Reuters.  

During the latest talks, Ukraine said the countries' two leaders should meet, but Russia said more work needed to be done on a draft treaty. 

This follows a series of disappointing headlines around the peace talks with the head of the Russian republic of Chechnya Kadyrov saying that the Kremlin negotiator Minsky was wrong because they will not make any concessions over Ukraine.

These talks are taking place in Istanbul, Turkey. The deputy defence minister had said that Russian forces would cut back their military operations around the capital, Kyiv. The negotiators they would do so in order to focus attention on the talks, build mutual trust and create the right conditions for a peace agreement.  However, on Wednesday, Russian forces bombarded the outskirts of Kyiv. The US administration had warned on Tuesday they were sceptical of Russia’s vow to curtail its military assault on Ukraine.

Market implications

As a consequence, equities ticked down and oil bounced as doubts grew over Russia’s intentions in Ukraine. The Thomson Reuters CRB Index rallied 2.2% with West Texas Intermediate crude in the spot market breaking $108bbl in New York trade. This in turn is supporting the Aussie. 

Market pricing remains very responsive to sudden shifts in sentiment and the onset of quarter and month-end is an additional hurdle for markets to contend with.

The end of the week's US jobs market data will be important in this regard to determine whether the US dollar can continue to run higher on safe haven flows and both positive economic data and central bank prospects in the face of higher interest rates and a wave of mounting inflation pressures.