Daily summary: Wall Street extends losses as recession worries grow

Below is the daily summary of the market:

• European indices finished today's session slightly higher, with DAX up 0.36%, as Germanys IFO Business Climate data showed a third consecutive monthly improvement in business morale during December. Nevertheless ongoing recession fears capped upside move.

• Vladimir Putin went to Minsk for the first time in over 3 years to meet Lukashenka, which raised concerns about a potential Russian offensive from Belarus, although this scenario is still not confirmed by the US or satellite data. Antonio Guterres, the secretary general of the UN, believes that there is no chance of peace talks in the near future given the escalation of military operations.

• All three major US indices are trading lower, with Dow Jones trading 0.20% lower, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell 0.65% and 1.20% as worries over the health of the global economy and the path for interest rates continued to weigh on market sentiment.

• Tesla stock rose slightly after Elon Musk taunted that he would step down from being Twitter's CEO following results of recent pool

• WTI crude price rose over 2.0% on Monday snapping a two-day decline as Beijing is planning to boost consumption at a key economic policy meeting, sparking hopes of greater energy demand in the worlds top crude importer.

• NATGAS price plunged over 11.0% amid warmer weather forecasts and prospects of lower demand. EU officials agreed on a gas price cap of €180/mwh (up from €175/mwh originally suggested) that will take effect on February 15th.

• Precious metals pulled back slightly despite the relatively weak US dollar. Gold is trading below $1800 mark, while silver is testing the $23.00 level.

• The dollar index fell to 104.5 on Monday after gaining more than 1% in the past two sessions. Early in the session USD depreciated strongly against the yen following reports that Prime Minister Kishida was planning to revise a decade-old accord with the Bank of Japan to add flexibility to its 2% inflation target. Currently AUD and CHF are the best performing currencies while JPY and USD lag the most.

• Major cryptocurrencies eased slightly at the beginning of new week. Bitcoin fell below $16600, while Ethereum dropped below the psychological $1200 level.