Sharjah24 – Reuters: Oil prices gyrated and Asian shares fell on Tuesday as Ukraine peace talks made little headway and the prospect of a ban on oil imports from Russia triggered investor fears over inflation and slowing economic growth.

Oil prices have already hit 14-year highs and Russia warned that prices could surge to $300 a barrel and it might close the main gas pipeline to Germany if the West halts oil imports over the invasion of Ukraine. Read full story

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS lost 0.4% in early trade, tracking a bruising Wall Street session. Japan's Nikkei .N225 sank 0.3% while Australian shares .AXJO were down 0.24% amid a sea of red across Asian markets.

Chinese blue chips .CSI300 shed 0.15% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.39% .

International oil benchmark Brent crude LCOc1, which briefly hit more than $139 a barrel in the previous session, jumped around in morning trade and was up about 0.8% at $124.20.

U.S. crude CLc1 was up about 0.4% at $119.86 a barrel, while prices of many other commodities, including nickel, rose as industrial buyers and traders scramble as the Russian-Ukraine conflict shows no sign of cooling.

Overnight, Wall Street's main indexes fell sharply with the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC confirming it was in a bear market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 2.37%, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.95% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.62%.

Shares in U.S. payment companies tumbled on Monday with American Express Co AXP.N closing down 8.0% after it said on Sunday it was suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus, joining Visa Inc V.N, which fell 4.8% and Mastercard Inc MA.N which fell 5.4% after their similar announcements the previous day. Read full story

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR rose to 1.7648% compared with its U.S. close of 1.749% on Monday. The two-year yield US2YT=RR, which rises with traders' expectations of higher Fed fund rates, touched 1.5563% compared with a U.S. close of 1.548%.

The rally in oil and other commodities prices will only add to the global inflationary pulse with data this week expected to show the U.S.