Weekend News Round Up - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open

• US stocks finished ultimately mixed and relatively flat on Friday after a choppy session which saw two-way swings in NVIDIA before its shares closed marginally in the green, while Treasuries saw pronounced flattening as Fed's Waller was back to being hawkish and with a squeeze higher seen in the long end.
• Weekend newsflow was light and remained dominated by geopolitical-related headlines.
• Looking ahead, highlights include Japanese Services PPI & Singapore Industrial Production.

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LOOKING AHEAD

• Highlights include Japanese Services PPI & Singapore Industrial Production.
• Click here for the Newsquawk Week Ahead.

US TRADE

• US stocks finished ultimately mixed and relatively flat on Friday after a choppy session which saw two-way swings in NVIDIA before its shares closed marginally in the green, while Treasuries saw pronounced flattening as Fed's Waller was back to being hawkish and with a squeeze higher seen in the long end.
• SPX +0.03% at 5,088, NDX -0.37% at 17,937, DJIA +0.16% at 39,131, RUT +0.14% at 2,016.
• Click here for a detailed summary.

NOTABLE HEADLINES

• Fed's Williams (voter) said on Friday that the view of the economy hasn't changed after the January data and things are moving in the right direction but would have to rethink the outlook if inflation progress stalls, according to an Axios interview. Williams expects consumer spending growth to slow this year and at some point, thinks it will be appropriate to pull back on restrictive monetary policy which he added would likely be later this year.
• US Treasury Department issued a statement on the FSOC's meeting on Friday in which it noted that it is to closely monitor CRE markets and OCC staff were briefed on real estate market developments.
• Former US President Trump won the South Carolina Republican primary to defeat Nikki Haley in her home state, while Haley insisted that she is not giving up the fight, according to Sky News.

COMMODITIES

• US Treasury official said on Friday the US is encouraged by 'significant progress' in the second phase of the Russian oil price cap.
• QatarEnergy CEO said Europe will continue to need gas as part of an energy mix for a very long time and Europe’s gas needs have not peaked, while QatarEnergy also stated that it may need to make additional orders of tankers to ship expanded LNG volumes.
• Exports from an oil field in western Libya and a subsea natural gas link to Italy were closed following protests, according to Bloomberg citing a person familiar with the matter.

GEOPOLITICAL

MIDDLE EAST

• Israeli PM Netanyahu said that they are all working on a hostage deal but he cannot say if they will have it, while he added that they will be weeks away from total victory once they begin the Rafah operation, according to a CBS interview.
• White House National Security Adviser Sullivan said Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the US came to a basic understanding of the basic contours of a hostage deal for a temporary ceasefire and the US is hopeful that an agreement could be reached in the coming days, although he also stated that a deal is still under negotiation and there will have to be indirect discussions by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas. Furthermore, it was also reported that Egyptian security sources said Qatar will host mediated Hamas-Israel truce talks this week.
• Hezbollah said they targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Marj site with a volcano missile and achieved a direct hit, according to Al Jazeera.
• US and UK forces conducted 9 air strikes in Sanaa, according to Yemen’s Houthi Al Masirah TV cited by Reuters.
• UKMTO received a report of a small fast boat behaving in an irregular manner 20NM east of UAE’s Khor Fakkan.
• Syrian Defence Ministry said its forces downed seven drones that tried to target military positions and villages in the vicinity of Hama and Idlib, according to state media.

OTHER

• Ukrainian President Zelensky said he hopes a peace summit in Switzerland will take place in spring and a peace plan prepared with partners in Switzerland will be presented to Russia. Zelensky said that the current moment is the most difficult for Ukrainian unity and that improving troop rotations is critical to the war effort, while he also noted there is a clear plan for a new Ukrainian offensive but didn't give details and said Russian forces will attempt another offensive in late May or summer.
• Ukrainian President Zelensky said a US aid package is needed within a month and is essential to support troops on the battlefield, according to FT. It was separately reported that Zelensky and Canadian PM Trudeau signed a bilateral security agreement during a ceremony in Kyiv and Zelensky stated via Telegram that Canada is to provide more than CAD 3bln in financial and defence aid this year. Zelensky also signed a security agreement with Italian PM Meloni, while Meloni stated that Italy committed to military support for Ukraine and said peace cannot mean surrender, according to Reuters.
• G7 Leaders’ statement stated they remain convinced that they can ensure Ukraine prevails in fighting for its future and will help Ukraine meet its urgent financing needs, while it added that Ukraine can count on their support for as long as it takes.
• UK PM Sunak called for Western countries to be more aggressive in seizing frozen Russian assets and passing the proceeds on to Ukraine to finance its defence, according to Bloomberg.
• Ukraine attacked Russia’s Novolipetsk Steel plant with drones which caused a major fire at the facility, according to Reuters.
• Russian Defence Ministry said Russian forces took a more advantageous position near Avdiivka and rebuffed seven Ukrainian counterattacks, according to Reuters.
• Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister said contact with the US over nuclear weapons in space has proven to be unproductive, while he added that the US has not presented any proof of allegations that Russia wants to put nuclear weapons in space.
• US military aircraft intercepted a balloon over Utah on Friday which was said to be small and not manoeuvrable, while the balloon was allowed to continue flying as the US concluded the balloon was not a threat to civil aviation or national security.

ASIA-PAC

NOTABLE HEADLINES

• US Deputy Treasury Secretary Adeyemo said on Friday that it is clear the Chinese economy is facing challenges from the property sector and demographics, while he is not concerned about headwinds from China's economic challenges but has concerns about China's excess production capacity flowing to global markets.

EU/UK

NOTABLE HEADLINES

• ECB is reportedly close to agreeing on a new monetary framework that some officials hope will pave the way to an ultimate revival of the interbank market, according to people familiar with the debate cited by Bloomberg.
• EU finance ministers reportedly clash over efforts to centralise markets supervision with Eurogroup President Donohoe noting there is a ‘strong diversity of views,’ and that member states disagree over the level of ambition to build a common supervisory regime as part of the roadmap to progress toward a capital markets union that the EU wants to settle by next month, according to Bloomberg.