Stock exchanges in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and other European countries were closed Monday for Easter.

As a result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the World Bank has cut its global economic growth forecast for this year by nearly 1 percentage point to 3.2%, and a $170 billion aid package more than during the COVID-19 epidemic is looming.

The simultaneous rise in US mortgage rates and house prices has deterred potential home buyers, according to a survey by the New York Federal Reserve. The US NAHB housing market index for April was 77, indicating that confidence among housing developers fell for the fourth month in a row.

Biden administration officials said that even if Russia attends the G-20 finance ministers' meeting in Washington this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen will not automatically boycott these meetings. She will participate in part of the discussion on the economic impact of the war in Ukraine.

At least five Fed officials spoke this week as investors focused on whether they could provide a hint of a big 50 basis point increase in interest rates in May. Among them, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will discuss the global economy at the IMF spring annual meeting on Thursday.

After light trading, US stocks closed down, software led technology stocks down, chip stocks rebounded, Tesla, Inc. rose 2%, Twitter rose 7.5%.

On Monday, April 18, trading in US stocks was light as a result of the closure of European stocks. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine continued, with the Russian trading system cash index RTS (dollar-denominated) and the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) index both closing down more than 3 per cent.

Investors are concerned about the earnings season for US stocks, which began a period of intensive issuance this week, as well as the prospect and inflation of the Fed's accelerated monetary tightening. U. S. stocks fluctuated between ups and downs throughout the day, under pressure from higher U. S. bond yields.

The three major indexes of US stocks opened slightly lower, while the Nasdaq, which is dominated by technology stocks, is obviously not as good as the rapidly rising Dow and S & P 500. Us stocks rose collectively in the first two hours of trading, but then turned around and fell again, with the biotechnology sector among the worst performers.

The three major indexes briefly rose after midday, while Russell 2000 small-cap stocks remained down throughout the day. The Dow fell nearly 140 points or 0.4% at the start of the session, but rose 0.4% or more than 127 points at one point after rising. S & p fell 0.5% and then rose, hitting a session high and up 0.4%. The Nasdaq fell 129 points or about 1% at the beginning of the session, briefly lost 13300 points, rose 0.3% at one point after rising, and rebounded relatively poorly in the main stock index.

However, U. S. stocks eventually closed lower, the S & P and the Nasdaq returned to one-month lows, and the Dow missed one-week highs.The Dow closed down 39.54 points, or 0.11%, at 34411.69. The S & P 500 closed down 90 points, or 0.02%, at 4391.69. The Nasdaq index closed down 18.72 points, or 0.14%, at 13332.36. Russell, which has the majority of value stocks, fell 0.74 per cent in 2000.

Zerohedge, a financial blog known for its venomous tongue, says US stocks seem to be moving more and more alike in 2022 and 2008.

Standard & Poor's 11 sectors are mixed, health care sector fell more than 1.1%, Modena closed down more than 6%, but the energy sector rose more than 1.5%, information technology and optional consumer sectors rose more than 0.3%, and the financial sector rose more than 0.6%.

Large-scale technology stocks were poor at the beginning of the session, but only Apple Inc and Netflix Inc closed down in late trading.Yuan Universe Meta, Amazon.Com Inc and Apple Inc all fell about 1 per cent in intraday trading, Microsoft Corp fell 0.4 per cent at one point, Alphabet, Alphabet Inc-CL C's parent company, fell 0.5 per cent at one point, and Netflix Inc, who announced results on Tuesday, fell nearly 3 per cent.

Tesla, Inc. fell 0.1% and rose 2.5% to close about 2%, rebounding from an one-week low and back above $1000. German media said the company would produce 30, 000 electric cars in Germany this year and report results after trading on Wednesday.

Social media giant Twitter surged 7.5% on Monday to its highest level in nearly two weeks after announcing a "poison pill" to block a hostile takeover by Tesla, Inc. CEO Musk. Musk said the economic interests of Twitter's board of directors were not consistent with those of shareholders.

Bank of America Corporation rose more than 3%, dragged down by investment banking business, although the first quarter net profit fell 12% compared with the same period last year, but the revenue is better than expected, in line with the financial reporting trend of other large banks.

The Philadelphia semiconductor index rose about 2 per cent, and NVIDIA Corp rose more than 3 per cent at one point. Software companies led the decline in technology stocks, with Datadog, Zoom Video and DocuSign all down about 6 per cent at one point. With the sharp rise in gas prices, natural gas EQT Corp. And Coterra Energy both reached 52-week highs.

The oil and gas sector led the gains, with the US energy up more than 4 per cent, while Western oil and Murphy oil rose more than 3 per cent.

Electric car manufacturers are not performing well.At one point, Lordstown Motors fell more than 6%, and Lucid both closed down more than 3%. At one point, the CEO closed down nearly 6%, and the chief executive warned of an imminent battery shortage in the electric car industry.

Most popular US-listed stocks fell, with ETF KWEB and CQQQ closing down about 1.9 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively, while the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index (HXC) fell 2 per cent. Of the four constituent stocks on the Nasdaq, Pinduoduo fell slightly, Baidu, Inc. fell more than 2%, but JD.com rose 1.7% and NetEase, Inc fell 1.7%. Among other stocks, DiDi Global Inc. is down more than 18%, Dada Nexus Limited is down 11%, iQIYI, Inc. and Jinshan Yun are down more than 9%, and Station B is down more than 6%. In addition, Mogu Inc is up nearly 3% and Energy Monster is up more than 6.6%.

Analysts point out that soaring US bond yields and high volatility in the bond market are putting pressure on stocks and raising fears of an impending recession. Morgan Stanley, a big short seller in US stocks, believes that high inflation has turned into a negative factor in earnings, and the first-quarter results may be more disappointing than expected. Goldman Sachs Group expects a "soft landing" for the US economy to be difficult, with a 15 per cent chance of a recession in the next 12 months and a 35 per cent chance within two years.

The market assesses inflation and interest rate hikes, 10-year Treasury yields hit a three-year high and the yield curve ends upside down

Yields on all maturities rose on Monday, long-end yields rose even more sharply, and the yield curve ended upside down. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose as high as 7.6 basis points on Monday to 2.884 per cent, the highest since December 2018, and traded at 1.71 per cent in early March.

Yields on two-year Treasuries, which are more sensitive to monetary policy, rose as much as 7 basis points on the day to an one-week high of 2.514 per cent, while US stocks fell in late trading. At one point, the yield on 30-year bonds rose more than 5 basis points to 2.97 per cent, setting a new high since May 2019.

According to the financial blog Zerohedge, the current key recession outlook indicator: two-year / 10-year Treasury yield spreads have returned to positive and widened to more than 40 basis points, and 7-year / 10-year Treasury yields have ended upside down.

Boosted by expectations of an interest rate hike, the dollar hit a two-year high, monetary policy divided, and the yen forced 127 to hit a 20-year low

The dollar edged higher in light and volatile trading on Monday, in line with the upward trend in Treasury yields, reflecting the continued preparation of investors for a 50 basis point rate hike announced by the Federal Reserve in May, which is now priced at 96 per cent in the futures market.

The dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of six major currencies, rose as much as 0.5 per cent to a daily high of 100.86, holding steady above the 100 mark and setting a two-year high since April 2020.

After the yen hit a 20-year low against the dollar and pushed down the 127th mark in Asian trading, both the governor of the Bank of Japan and the finance minister expressed concern about the depreciation of the yen, which rose to 126.25 against the dollar at one point, while US stocks fell another 0.5 per cent and lost 126.90 in intraday trading.

Analysts pointed out that before the Bank of Japan changed its extreme dovish position, monetary policy differences meant that the yen would remain weak against the dollar, even approaching a low of 135.15 in 2002. The yen has fallen for six consecutive weeks, nearly 10% lower than in early March and nearly 2% last week.

The euro fell 0.2 per cent against the dollar and fell below the 1.08 mark, with the session low approaching a two-year low set last week, mainly because it is still unclear when the ECB will raise interest rates. The Australian dollar fell to its lowest level in a month against the US dollar.

Tight supply pushed up US oil once exceeded US $109, cloth oil exceeded US $114, and US natural gas reached a 13-year high.

WTI may crude oil futures closed up $1.26, or 1.18%, at $108.21 a barrel. Brent June crude oil futures closed up $1.46, or 1.31%, at $113.16 a barrel.

Us Oil WTI broke through three integer figures of US $107 to US $109 in a row, rising as high as US $2.86 or 2.7%, the highest since March 28, and fully recovering the decline since the White House announced the "largest strategic oil reserve release in US history" on March 31.

In a row, the oil distribution broke through the three integer figures of 112 to 114 US dollars, and even forced 115 US dollars, up to 3.13 US dollars, or 2.8%, the highest level since March 28. The shutdown of Libya's main oil fields has deepened concerns about global supply constraints in the wake of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

NYMEX us natural gas may futures closed up 7.12 per cent at $7.8200 per million British thermal units, up about 16.30 per cent last week. It rose more than 10% in intraday trading on Monday, the highest level in more than 13 years since September 2008, and broke through $8 for the first time since 2008.

Us natural gas, which has risen for five weeks, hit a more than 13-year high in four trading days last week as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine tightened global energy supplies and boosted demand for record LNG exports to Europe and low spring temperatures. Us gas prices have doubled this year, and some analysts expect them to continue to rise significantly in the summer, highlighting inflation concerns as energy costs soar.

The rising tide of commodity prices continued, with gold hitting a five-week high of US $2000 and corn futures reaching a 10-year high.

COMEX June gold futures closed up 0.6% at $1986.40 an ounce.

Spot gold prices rose as high as nearly $25, or 1.3%, on the day, rising above $1998, a five-week high since March 11. Gold stopped five consecutive days and fell to an one-month high on Friday, but rose last week.

According to the analysis, concerns about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and rising inflationary pressures have increased safe-haven buying of precious metals, but if the real yield in the United States turns positive, the ability of gold to remain above $2000 in the future is limited, and the rise in bond market yields increases the opportunity cost of holding gold.

Spot silver rose more than 2% and briefly broke the integer figure of $26, the highest since March 9, platinum rose more than 3% to the highest level since March 25, and palladium rose more than 4% to return to an one-week high, mainly affected by concerns about supply disruptions caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Food commodities also continued to rise. Due to supply problems, US CBOT July corn futures rose 2.8% to break through US $8 a bushel, the highest level in nearly a decade since September 2012, and up 1% from US $6 at the beginning of the year.

The analysis said that the continuing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the near halving of Ukraine's corn production, the US shift to "burning corn" to reduce gasoline prices, the lower-than-expected intention to sow corn, and the delay of sowing in Canada caused by snowstorms and cold weather, the corn rally is far from over.

At the same time, CBOT US wheat futures rose more than 2%, soybean meal futures rose about 1%, soybean oil futures rose more than 1% CBOT cork futures and CBOT lean pig futures rose more than 3%. ICE raw sugar, white sugar, Arabica coffee and cotton all rose.

Most of the inner market futures night markets closed higher, with methanol, soda ash and PP up more than 2%. Shanghai nickel night trading closed up more than 5%, Shanghai tin rose more than 2%, and stainless steel rose more than 3.7%. Methanol, soda ash and PP rose by more than 2%, iron ore by more than 1%, coke by 1.9%, and coking coal and thermal coal by about 1%.