Crypto & Stocks Hemorrhage, Oil Goes Uppity

Although no stranger to just nuclear price action (both for the good, and bad) Bitcoin and the like have certainly seen better days. Markets were closed in honor of President’s Day, but Bitcoin wasted no time to fall over 6% on the day, trading around $36.5k Monday night. Bitcoin recovered some of its losses into Tuesday’s trading day, but continued to decline amidst the Russia & Ukraine tensions which has sent the market in an absolute frenzy. The S&P closed down 1% and has slipped into “correction territory”, falling over 10% from the early January highs.

And now as Putin seemingly has absolutely zero care regarding the sanctions that surround him, oil has gained major momentum as a result, with WTI Crude looking to surpass $100/barrel.

Virtually every Russian export (oil, what, nickel, aluminum) rose to some degree during Tuesday’s trading day, although nickel and aluminum did relinquish early gains on the London Metal Exchange.

The U.S. finds itself in a precarious situation regarding intervention, namely because any hit Russia’s O&G sector would inflict direct damage on not only the U.S., but Europe as well. Europe’s largest imports of natural gas are from Norway and…you guessed it, Russia. Natural gas has been a particularly painful point for most. of Europe, as prices in the northwestern region are almost up 5X than they were a year ago. Let me be clear by saying that I have absolutely zero understanding of geopolitics, but in looking at this through the lens of pain worldwide caused by inflation, this is a tricky conundrum.