It was learned that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized "special military operations" in Ukraine, causing a huge earthquake in global financial markets and lower stock markets in Europe and Asia. U.S. stocks opened sharply lower on Thursday, then boosted by Biden's speech, with the NASDAQ closing up nearly 3.4 percent and a one-day amplitude of nearly 7 percent.
As of the close, the Dow rose 92.07 points, or 0.28%, at 33,223.83; the Nasdaq rose 436.10 points, or 3.34%, at 13,473.59, its biggest gain since March 2021; and the S&P 500 rose 63.20 points, or 1.50%, at 4288.70. Moderna(MRNA. US) closed up more than 15%, Virgin Galactic (SPCE. US) closed up 11.25%, with AMD. US) closed up 6.24%, NVDA. US) up 6.08%.
Germany's DAX30 fell 3.96%, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 3.88%, France's CAC40 fell 3.83%, and Europe's Stoxx 50 fell 3.63%.
The Nikkei 225 fell 1.81%, South Korea's KOSPI fell 2.6%, Singapore's Straits Times fell 3.45%, Vietnam's VN30 fell 1.09%, Indonesia's Jakarta Composite fell 1.51%, Thailand's SET fell 1.99%, the Philippine Composite Fell 2.06%, India's Mumbai 30 fell 4.72%, and Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Fell 0.77%.
The U.S. dollar hit its highest in nearly two years, and Russia invaded Ukraine to push safe-haven buying. The basket of dollar indexes (DXY), which measures the greenback against six major currencies (euro, swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, british pound and Swedish krona), rose 0.91 percent to 97.09. Erik Bregar, director of risk management for foreign exchange and precious metals at Silver Gold Bull Inc., said: "This is a major geopolitical dynamic that many people have never seen in their lifetime, and this is a classic safe-haven operation. ”
【Cryptocurrency】Cryptocurrencies are rising. Bitcoin rose more than 3 percent at $384.254 million, and Ethereum rose 0.37 percent at $2,630.53.
Gold: Gold prices hit their highest in more than a year and a half. COMEX April gold futures closed up 0.8 percent at $1,926.30 an ounce, a new high since January 5, 2021. Russia's attack on Ukraine was the largest attack launched by one country on another in Europe since World War II. Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures, said: "This exceeded market expectations, if Russia does take Kiev and the international community responds strongly, gold prices will rise fairly quickly above $2,000 an ounce", and the path with the least resistance is upwards, because there are too many unknowns at the moment.
Brent crude oil once stood at $100, as the risk of Sanctions on Russia increased. WTI March crude oil futures closed up 0.77 percent at $92.81 a barrel. Brent crude April futures rose 1.57 percent at $95.53 a barrel.
【Base metals】Aluminum prices hit record highs. The London Metal Exchange's (LME) three-month aluminium surged 3.3% to $3,402 a tonne, after hitting a record high of $3,480. Tin gave back gains after hitting a record high of $45,880, rising 0.6 percent at $45,220. Copper stabilized at $9,871 a tonne, zinc rose 2 percent to $3,641 and lead rose 1.7 percent to $2,351.
【Macro News】
U.S. President Joe Biden announced a freeze on all Russian assets in the United States. U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on the situation in Ukraine. Biden said all Russian assets in the U.S. would be frozen. The United States will immediately freeze the assets of Russia's second-largest bank, VTB (Russian Foreign Trade Bank), and cut off the TSB and its 25 subsidiaries from the U.S. financial system, estimating that allied sanctions against Russia will cut off more than half of Russia's high-tech imports and technology. As for whether to ban Russia from using the Swift International Settlement System, biden said "we have imposed sanctions that exceed SWIFT". Biden said the U.S. would release more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) if conditions permitted to avoid a spike in energy prices.
The Ukrainian government says the Russians are brewing a new offensive and has distributed more than 10,000 automatic rifles to kiev residents. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in a Facebook post that the Russian military is preparing to launch a new wave of attacks, including the use of airborne troops. "The fierce fighting took place in Luhansk and Sumy north of the capital, and the south was also fought hard," said Reznikov, whose Ukrainian troops were ready to repel a new offensive and were using "modern weapons." According to CCTV, on the evening of February 24, local time, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs released news that the Ukrainian government has issued more than 10,000 automatic rifles to Kiev residents in the past few hours.
U.S. officials expect Kiev to be captured within 96 hours. Three U.S. officials told the media that the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, is expected to be occupied by Russian troops within 96 hours, and Ukraine's new leader is expected to take office in about a week. Three officials said Moscow's focus would be on encircling Ukrainian troops and forcing them to surrender or be destroyed, as Russian President Vladimir Putin called "special military operations" to "demilitarize" Ukraine. A former senior U.S. intelligence official with extensive experience dealing with Russia expressed a similar view.
The OECD condemns Russia's military action against Ukraine. On the evening of February 24, local time, the Council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development issued a press communiqué condemning Russia's large-scale military operations against Ukraine. The communiqué said Russia's move was a violation of international law and a serious threat to the rules-based international order. The OECD Council is urgently reconsidering all cooperation with Russia and assessing the economic and social impact.
Russia's crude oil discount is record, and no buyer dares to take over under the risk of sanctions. As some buyers and tanker companies fear the risk of sanctions against Russia, Russia's Ural crude oil is the largest discount in history compared to the benchmark Brent crude spot. The cost of crude oil transportation has risen sharply. The Ural crude price was $11.60/b lower than the spot brent crude spot price in the spot market, the largest drop in the data since at least 11 years of statistical history. And this price still does not attract buyers to take over. In addition, there is a large crude oil transaction that has not been completed.
【Individual Stock News】
SEC vs. Tesla (TSLA. US) CEO Musk and his brothers recently conducted a stock sell-off to investigate. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the recent stock sell-off by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the company's board member and Musk's younger brother, Kimbal Musk, to determine if they violated insider trading rules. Sources said the SEC began its investigation last year after Kimbar sold $108 million worth of Tesla stock. The day before, Musk posted a user survey on Twitter asking if he should sell his 10 percent stake in Tesla.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block Joint Health (UNH. US) $13 billion acquisition transaction. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to prevent a unit of United Health from acquiring health technology company Change Healthcare, arguing that the $13 billion deal would reduce competition in the market. The regulator said in a press release that the acquisition would allow health care and health insurance giant United Health Group to leverage hundreds of millions of Americans' competitive sensitive claims data to reduce industry competition and would cause damage to the commercial health insurance market.
Citigroup (C.US) will cancel the overdraft fee this summer. Citigroup said it would eliminate all overdraft, refund and overdraft protection fees by the summer, making it the first major U.S. retail bank to take the move as regulators reviewed those fees. Citibank says customers with overdraft accounts can get their account balance above zero by setting up free autopay from their savings account or, if approved, by getting a line of credit from the bank.
Nikola(NKLA. US) narrowed its loss in the fourth quarter. Nikola reported a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and confirmed its truck production and revenue-generating plans for 2022. Nikola recently reached a settlement over a federal investigation that misled investors. The company reported an operating loss of $9.04 million, or 23 cents per share. By contrast, wall Street is expected to lose 32 cents per share, according to analysts compiled by Refinitiv. The company said it expects to generate $90 million to $150 million in revenue after delivering 300 to 500 of the first batch of battery-electric semi-trailers, or Nikola Tre, to customers in 2022.
【Big Bank Rating】
Barclays: Booking (BKNG. US) margin outlook disappointing lowered its price target to $2670
Stifel：eBay(EBAY. US) performance guidance fell short of expectations lowered its price target to $70
Wells Fargo: Downgrading OF SAI FTSE (CRM. US) target price to $265 maintains an "overweight" rating
Susquehanna: Virgin Galactic (SPCE. US) the road to profitability is still long and the price target is lowered to $9
Damo: VIPS. US) outlook "bleak" lowered its price target to $10
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