Putin Sinks the Market

The stock market is down today after the terrible news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russian stock market is getting crushed, and the ruble is down sharply. The Russian Fed had to step in and raise interest rates by 150 basis points. At one point, the MICEX was down by as much as 12.5%. On the U.S. market, shares of Gazprom ($OGZPY) dropped nearly 14%. The yield on six-month Ukrainian paper is close to 50%.

The S&P 500 is currently down 23 points. There’s now talk that Q1 GDP growth will come in around 1.7% or 1.8%, when not too long ago people thought it would top 3%.

The real action today has been in the gold pits. The yellow metal is currently up $32.40 to $1354 per ounce. Most of our Buy List is down today. Shares of DirecTV ($DTV), however, are holding up well. The latest disclosure from Warren Buffett indicates that the investing icon likes DTV. Buffett has increased his DTV substantially. Meanwhile, he’s sold out of DISH.

Qualcomm ($QCOM) is having rough day even though JMP Securities raised its price target to $85 per share, and they have an “outperform” rating.

Posted by on March 3rd, 2014 at 12:29 pm


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