Shares up as oil skids on hopes for Ukraine talks

Shares up as oil skids on hopes for Ukraine talks

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SYDNEY: Most share markets firmed and oil slid on Monday on hopes for progress in Russian-Ukraine peace talks even as fighting continued to rage, while bond markets braced for rate rises in the United States and UK this week.

While Russian missiles hit a large Ukrainian base near the border with Poland on Sunday, both sides gave their most upbeat assessment yet of prospects for talks.

Just the chance of peace saw S&P 500 stock futures add 0.3%, while Nasdaq futures rose 0.2%. EUROSTOXX 50 futures gained 0.9% and FTSE futures 0.4%.

Tokyo's Nikkei rose 0.8%, but MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was dragged down 1.1% by losses in China.

Chinese blue chips shed 1.1% after a jump in coronavirus cases saw the southern city of Shenzen locked down and stoked speculation about more policy easing.

Bonds elsewhere remained under pressure having taken a beating last week as surging commodity prices looked set to boost inflation further, with yields on 10-year Treasuries rising three basis points to 2.03%.

Notably, a key measure of U.S. inflation expectations climbed to 3% and near record highs.

That merely cemented expectations the Federal Reserve would lift rates by 25 basis points at its policy meeting this week and