Forex Today: Putin escalates war despite peace talks

What you need to take care of on Tuesday, March 1:

The risk-related sentiment remained as the main market motor. Safe-haven assets gapped higher at the weekly opening amid the escalating war between Russia and Ukraine. The sentiment temporarily improved the early US session amid peace talks. However, such talks ended without decisions. A new round of talks will take place in a few days, but hostilities resumed with Moscow bombarding civilian buildings near Kyiv.

President Putin ignores sanctions and financial chaos: Russia imposes a halt to foreigners' security payments. Local stocks markets will remain closed on Tuesday, while the RUB plummeted to record lows vs the greenback.

Western nations are also escalating their war preparations in the Baltic. Germany and Croatia, among other countries, announced defensive preparations.

ECB President Christine Lagarde tweeted: "I reiterated that the ECB will implement sanctions decided by the EU, and we are ready to do all that is needed within our mandate to ensure price stability and financial stability."

The EUR/USD pair flirted with the yearly low before bounding, now trading around the 1.1200 level. GBP/USD posted a modest intraday advance and settled around 1.3400. Commodity-linked currencies were among the best performers against the greenback, with AUD/USD trading around 0.7250 and USD/CAD in the 1.2690 price zone. The Swiss Franc and the JPY edged firmly higher against the dollar.

Spot gold trades around $1,900 a troy ounce, while the barrel of WTI changes hands at around $935.30, both up from Friday's close.

Increased demand for government bonds dragged yields lower. Meanwhile, most global indexes traded in the red.

Shiba Inu to outperform Dogecoin, as SHIBA targets a breakout to $0.000054