Fed Fueled Thursday – Putin Puts Powell on Pause

Oil hit $116.57 overnight.

Now it’s “down” to $112.50 as Russian troops contine to march and bombard their way to Kyiv and one million out of 40M people in Ukraine have been driven out – becomming the kind of refugees Republicans would build a wall to keep from safety and sanctuary.  I mean, look at these two kids, exactly the kind of people our ex-President warned us about when he said:

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.  They’re not sending you.  They’re not sending you.  They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” – Trump

THIS is how people become refugees, Governments change, homes are destroyed, people find themselves on the wrong side of wars they had nothing to do with and they have nowhere to go in their home country (and yes, there are economic refugees also, just looking for opportunity in a country that used to call itself “The Land of Opportunity“), so they end up being “refugees” and what they need is help – not scorn.  

Could you imagine if President Biden said he’d be happy to take 100,000 Ukranian refugees?  Even though the US could sure use 100,000 new workers – you KNOW what the reaction would be.  Air BnB (ABNB), on the other hand, put up a page asking their rental partners to host some refugees, charging nothing and providing insurance for people willing to lend their unused housing to refugees.  They expect to be able to house 100,000 refugees for up to 14 days – a huge help in the crisis – kudos to them!

Meanwhile, all this is great for the market (apparently) as it has made Powell tip his hand and assure Congress that there will only be a 0.25% rate hike in March – not the 0.5% expected and that was all the markets needed to hear yesterday to set off a very nice rally because, in the end, the markets don’t care about a war in Ukraine any more than they care about 2,000 people a day still dying of Covid in…

Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.