Economic calendar: Western sanctions trigger risk-off moves

• European markets set to open lower after West says Russia will be cut off SWIFT

• Russian-Ukraine talks to be held at 9:00 am GMT

• Ruble crashes, Russian central bank hikes rates from 9.5 to 20.0%

Futures markets point to a lower opening of the European stock market session today after the West announced that far-reaching sanctions will be levied onto the Russian financial sector. Part of Russian banks will be cut off from SWIFT while a big part of Russian central bank's reserves will be frozen. The Russian central bank reacted with a panic rate hike - from 9.5 to 20.0% - and ordered domestic companies to sell 80% of FX revenue. Bloomberg reports that USDRUB leaped from around 82 to around 120 over the weekend but many brokers have not resumed RUB trading at all. Oil prices and European natural gas prices jump amid fears that Russia will move to halt energy exports to Europe. Fighting in Ukraine continues and Ukraine-Russia conflict remains a key driver in the markets.

Negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations are expected to begin at noon Moscow time (9:00 am GMT). There is a lot of uncertainty heading into these talks and markets will be closely watching any news coming out of them.

8:00 am GMT - Spain, CPI for February. Expected: 7.1% YoY. Previous: 6.1% YoY

9:00 am GMT - Poland, GDP report for Q4 2021 (revision). First release: 1.7% QoQ

1:30 pm GMT - US, trade balance for January. Expected: -$99.6 billion. Previous: -$100.5 billion

2:45 pm GMT - US, Chicago PMI for February. Expected: 63.0. Previous: 65.2

Central bankers' speeches

• 11:30 am GMT - ECB Panetta

• 3:50 pm GMT - ECB President Lagarde