Good news is that jobless numbers here fell in Feb. 

Markets wound up higher yesterday, a bit of a fluke over reactions to the State of the Union. 

The Fed will raise interest rates no more than 0.25% according to the latest news from US Treasurer Powell. 

Russian and Ukraine are holding more talks.

Energy

*Because of Russian holdings, 24 US based investment funds are blocking withdrawals. OPEC Plus is not going to boost production in part because it has a Russian informally in co-charge, Alexander Novak. Controlled by oil producers it has refused to boost oil production. The International Energy Agency's 60 mn barrel  release actually boosted oil prices as it was below forecasts.  Oil is now $112/bbl. 

*More bad news is that MSCI says Russian companies are "uninvestable". And the oil price has hit a new high leading China to open its spigots. It is up c.43% to a 13 year high. While Russian oil is cheap because of the ruble rubble at about $20 per bbl, few western oil companies are buying there. The Russian currency is now at 110 per dollar.

*Energy Fuels (UUUU), an alternative supplier of uranium, fell 3.43%. 

*US Coterra was given a lower TP of .764 (from .817) but was upgraded to buy from hold.

*Schlumberger Ltd fell 2.52%.

*Ormat was downgraded to hold from buy. ORA is a US stock. 

*Yesterday Ford Motors gained 8.4% and Occidental rose 3.4%. 

*Plug Power (PLUG) having been in play earlier this year now is losing all its gains.

*Maersk is shuttering its container ship fleet to and from Russia.

Latinos

*Ecofuels set the pace with is jump of 8.6% this week.  

*Cosan is up over 3%. 

*Chilean Soquimich is up on a Q4 beat by a whopping 7.4%. SQM mines copper.

*Vale rose in sympathy by 2.72%.

Drugs

*Today there is good news from Swiss drug firm Roche. It has begun phase 3 trials of its Alzheimer prevention drug. 

*Good news also boosted our Eisai small cap  (ESALY) which reported that its Motixafortide helps stem cell transplants take.

*However Dr Reddy's fell another 3.2% in India trading. 

*Alkermes was given a new target price of 0.014 down from 0.03 and rated hold now rather than buy. It is Irish.

Tech & Tel

*Nokia is off 2.72% today on no news. 

*Apart from oil supply chains are suffering from other disruptions over everything from platinum to steel to sunflower oil.

Havens

*Gold is up near $2000 per ounce.

*Financial stocks are not working as escape hatches any longer. Even Aberdeen is down, maybe because it lost its vowels.