“Prosperity brings expanded lending, which leads to unwise lending, which produces large losses, which makes lenders stop lending, which ends prosperity, and on and on.”
― Howard Marks

1. Biden Bans Imports of Russian Oil, Natural Gas — President Biden banned imported oil and other energy sources from Russia to punish the country as it intensified its military campaign in Ukraine, a move that will add pressure to already record U.S. gasoline prices and the economic recovery.
The U.S. immediately prohibited new Russian shipments of oil, certain petroleum products, liquefied natural gas and coal under an executive order Mr. Biden signed Tuesday. Washington will give companies 45 days to wind down existing contracts for Russian energy supplies, a senior Biden administration official said. The order also bars new U.S. investment in Russia’s energy sector and blocks Americans from financing foreign companies that invest in the sector.
2. Nickel Market Crisis Sends London Metal Exchange Scrambling to Prevent Damage — financial regulators and Chinese officials rushed to resolve a crisis in London’s nickel market, which remained on ice after an ill-fated trade sparked mammoth price gains and billions of dollars of losses. At the center of the action is Chinese nickel titan Tsingshan Holding Group, the world’s biggest producer of a metal used in stainless steel and electric-vehicle batteries. The company, sitting on $8 billion in trading losses, said Wednesday it had secured enough metal to settle all its loss-making positions, according to a state-run media outlet. The disorder has ramifications for miners, steelmakers and electric-vehicle makers because LME prices are used as a benchmark in the metals industry. Commodity markets were already in turmoil from the war in Ukraine and punishing sanctions, which have cut supply lines and stifled trading of metals, energy and food, essential to the running of the global economy.
3. Inflation Reached 7.9% in February; Consumer Prices Are the Highest in 40 Years — Rising energy, food and services prices pushed already elevated U.S. inflation to a 7.9% annual rate last month—another four-decade high—with oil and commodity market disruptions from the Ukraine crisis expected to add more cost pressures. The consumer-price index, which measures the cost of goods and services across the economy, hasn’t been this high since it was 8.4% in January 1982, when the nation was in recession and trying to tame what had been double-digit inflation. Higher energy prices, including gasoline price increases, helped push up the inflation reading, along with cost gains for groceries, restaurant food, transportation services and apparel, the Labor Department reported.
4. Biden Bans Iconic Russian Imports, Calls for Trade Downgrade — President Joe Biden said he would ban imports of Russian vodka, caviar and diamonds and called on U.S. lawmakers to join Western allies in revoking the country’s preferential trade status following the Ukraine invasion. Downgrading Russia’s trade status “is going to make it harder for Russia to do business with the United States,” Biden said in remarks at the White House, adding that it would “be another crushing blow to the Russian economy.”
The president can’t unilaterally remove what’s known as “permanent normal trade relations” status for Russia because that authority lies with Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would consider legislation next week to revoke the designation, a move that has support from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Biden’s signature on the bill would clear the way for increased import tariffs, and Russia would join Cuba and North Korea as the only countries in the world without preferential trade status in the U.S.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: