Global stock indices sank to their lowest level in 18 months

The media attributed this to investors' fear of inflation, but this argument doesn't hold up since both the US CPI figure and the producer price index figure, published yesterday, showed lower levels compared with the previous month. This might suggest that inflation has already reached its peak. If we observe the behavior of treasury bonds, both American and European, we’ll see that they experienced deep falls in their yields, with the 10-year American bond falling ten bps to 2.83%. If investors were worried about inflation, they would have sold treasuries, and yields would jump, as they would expect more aggressive action from central banks on interest rates. The market move didn’t occur due to fears of inflation but was classic risk-off behavior motivated by escalating war tensions in Ukraine. Germany warned that Russia was using gas and oil as a war weapon and what raised investors’ concern was Finland's formal request to join NATO. The Nordic country has been maintaining a neutral status since World War II. Given that it borders Russia, an uncontrolled reaction of the latter is feared.