European major indices are ending the session mixed. UK’s FTSE 100 up marginally

The major European
 
 indices 
Indices

Stock market indices represents an index that measures a particular stock market or a segment of the stock market. These instruments are important investors as they help compare current price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.The main two parameters for indices are that they are both investable and transparent. For example, investors can invest in a stock market index by buying an index fund, which is structured as either a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund, and track an index. The difference between an index fund’s performance and the index, if any, is called tracking error. Most major countries boast multiple indices. Commonly traded indices include the S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIJA), EURO STOXX 50, Hang Seng Index, and many more.Stock market indices can be characterized or segmented by the index coverage set of stocks. The overall coverage of an index constitutes an underlying group of stocks, most commonly grouped together by underlying investor demand.How to Trade IndicesRetail brokers offer indices exposure through the use of contracts-for-difference (CFDs) or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Each are popular ways to trade specific markets and are almost always on offer at most brokers.Investors can choose between multiple types of indices that traditionally fall within several categories. This includes country coverage, regional coverage, global coverage, exchange-based coverage, and sector-based coverage.All indices are ultimately weighted in a number of different ways. The most common mechanisms include market-capitalization weighting, free-float adjusted market capitalization weighting, volatility weighting, price weighting, and others.

Stock market indices represents an index that measures a particular stock market or a segment of the stock market. These instruments are important investors as they help compare current price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.The main two parameters for indices are that they are both investable and transparent. For example, investors can invest in a stock market index by buying an index fund, which is structured as either a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund, and track an index. The difference between an index fund’s performance and the index, if any, is called tracking error. Most major countries boast multiple indices. Commonly traded indices include the S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIJA), EURO STOXX 50, Hang Seng Index, and many more.Stock market indices can be characterized or segmented by the index coverage set of stocks. The overall coverage of an index constitutes an underlying group of stocks, most commonly grouped together by underlying investor demand.How to Trade IndicesRetail brokers offer indices exposure through the use of contracts-for-difference (CFDs) or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Each are popular ways to trade specific markets and are almost always on offer at most brokers.Investors can choose between multiple types of indices that traditionally fall within several categories. This includes country coverage, regional coverage, global coverage, exchange-based coverage, and sector-based coverage.All indices are ultimately weighted in a number of different ways. The most common mechanisms include market-capitalization weighting, free-float adjusted market capitalization weighting, volatility weighting, price weighting, and others.
Read this Term are ending the session with mixed results despite the Russian aggression overtures. The provisional closes are showing:

• German DAX, -0.5%
• France’s CAC, -0.2%
• UK’s FTSE 100, +0.2%
• Spain’s Ibex, -0.1%
• Italy’s FTSE MIB -0.1%

The major indices were down more sharply earlier in the session, but recovered most of the declines and moved higher on the day before settling near unchanged levels by the close:

• German DAX was down -2.79% at it’s lows and +0.36% it’s highs
• France’s CAC was down -2.28% it’s lows and up 0.68% at its highs
• UK’s FTSE 100 was down -1.68% it’s lows and up 0.63% at its highest
• Italy’s FTSE MIB was down -2.77% at it’s lows and up 0.67% it’s highs
• Spain’s Ibex was down -2.54% it’s lows and up 0.74% at its highest

in other markets as European/London traders look to exit:

• Spot gold is trading near unchanged at $1903. It traded as low as $1891.52
• Spot silver is up $0.37 or 1.51% at $24.25
• WTI crude oil futures is trading at $92.31 that’s up $2.10
• Bitcoin is trading at $37,787. That is off it’s intraday low of $36,368.99. The high for the day reached $38,339.48

The major US indices are taking the Russian news a little harder than the European markets:

• Dow industrial average is -296 points -0.86% at 33785
• S&P is down -29.59 points or -0.68% at 4319.01
• NASDAQ index is down -154 points or -1.14% at 13393.08
• Russell 2000 is down 12.65 points or -0.63% at 1996.62

A snapshot of the forex market continues to show the NZD as the strongest and the CHF as the weakest. The JPY is also weaker on the day as is the USD.

The reaction in the forex market is counterintuitive to a risk off bias from the news.

Typically in times of stress, the flow of funds moves into the safety of the CHF, JPY and USD. The opposite is happening today.