“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful” — Buffett

1. Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Says He Is Ready to Work Fast to End War — President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that he’s ready to work speedily to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, stressing how “regrettable” his falling out was with US President Donald Trump and stating his determination to help bring about peace. The comments are an olive branch to the US president came after Trump ordered a pause to all US military aid to Ukraine. Trump’s actions turned up the heat on the Ukrainian leader after a disastrous meeting in the White House last week that upended attempts at reconciling the two. The US president falsely accused Zelenskiy of wanting to continue the conflict.
2. U.S. Pauses All Military Aid to Ukraine — The U.S. will pause all military aid to Kyiv until President Trump determines that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is making a good-faith effort toward peace negotiations with Russia, according to a White House official. The White House didn’t announce under what conditions the U.S. would resume military aid, which drew from U.S. stockpiles, or whether it would be at the same pace. While there isn’t a clear understanding of what Washington wants from Kyiv, the move was the most demonstrative shift yet from Ukraine’s once top ally. A senior administration official said all of Trump’s top national security advisers agreed with the decision to pause the aid after several meetings on the issue. Trump, enraged by Zelensky’s comments that he thought the end of the war was far away, felt the need to show he was serious about getting Ukraine to the peace table.
3. Trump Says He Will Delay Mexico Tariffs on Goods Under USMCA — President Donald Trump said he will exempt Mexico from his new 25% tariffs on any goods and services that fall under the North American trade agreement known as USMCA, offering a reprieve for a major US trading partner. The decision came shortly after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump was weighing an exemption for both Mexican and Canadian goods under the agreement, saying he expected Trump to officially decide the scope of the delay on Thursday. It’s not clear that Trump will extend the full USMCA pause to Canada, though he has already said he would exempt Canadian autos and auto parts that are imported under the trade deal. Whatever exemption is implemented is expected to last until April 2, when Trump expects to enact a fresh round of tariffs, including “reciprocal” duties on countries around the world and sector-specific ones, like on auto, pharmaceutical and semiconductor imports.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2025 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Weekly Summary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.