Ukraine declares the State of Emergency that markets had been waiting for.
Markets are in a tailspin of risk-off with the yen benefitting and AUD pressured to fresh risk-off lows at 0.7221.
There are also rumours that Russia's military action could begin at 4 am local time (please note, this is not fact-checked but only a market rumour at the time of writing).
In the latest development in the Ukraine crisis, following the news that Donetsk and Luhansk had asked Russia for military aid, requests that were deemed in markets to be the latest (possibly final) pretext that Russia could use to launch a full attack on Ukraine, the nation has declared the State of Emergency.
Meanwhile, crossing the Twitter feeds, an unverified rumour from Luke Harding, a journalist at the Guardian and author of the book Shadow State, tweeted the following:
After midnight in #Kyiv. The mood grim, friends calling each other, the city still up and drinking tea. The rumour - from officials, foreign contacts, journalists - is that Russian action will began at 4am local time. #Ukraine is bracing, joking, hugging, loving. We wait
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) February 23, 2022
The tweet was picked up by a reputable speciality Squawk service, but again, it must be stressed, this is unverified and by no means has it been announced by any nation. However, the build-up to this has not been promising. With Russian threat growing, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pleading for peace. He said he asked for a call with Vladimir Putin but the Kremlin didn't respond.
“The people of Ukraine and the government of Ukraine want peace,” he said in Russian, ''but if the nation comes under an attack, “we will fight back.”
Forex market implications
Meanwhile, in the forex space, bears are knocking on the door of 83.00 the figure in AUD/JPY, having already marked it down to a low of 82.98 bid so far.
USD/JPY is playing out as earlier forecasted:
The price action on the hourly time frame is making for a bearish structure, confirming the bias:
Global equities and the benchmarks/futures in Asia are following the lead from Wall Street:
The Nikkei continuous front-month contract is down some 0.15% at the time of writing, pre cash.
Gold is edging higher towards daily highs of $1,916.52, XAU/USD $1,911.61, so far.
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