What was looking like a positive morning for equities turned murkier in the last few hours as Russian President Vladimir Putin updated the country’s nuclear doctrine in response to President Biden’s move giving Ukraine the go-ahead to launch attacks on Russian targets deep inside the border.  Under the new policy, a spokesperson for the Kremlin said that Russia now “reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression using conventional weapons against it and/or the Republic of Belarus.”

Before the comments, Asian stocks were higher, with fractional gains across the board overnight. European stocks also opened flat to slightly higher but then steadily sold off in the wake of the updated doctrine. The STOXX 600 currently sits down about 0.75%, as even a small increase, however unlikely, of an escalating conflict can understandably cause investors to become more risk averse. It’s also worth highlighting that Putin made similar comments over the weekend that supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles would cross a red line.

Given the tensions, Treasury yields are lower as the 10-year yield is back below 3.4%, crude oil is fractionally lower, and gold and bitcoin are up nearly 1% each with the latter trading firmly above $92K. In terms of economic data, Building Permits and Housing Starts for October were just released and both headline readings came in modestly lower than expected.

Shifting from macro to the micro, Walmart (WMT) marked the unofficial end to earnings season this morning reporting better-than-expected EPS and sales and reiterating its full-year guidance. This was the tenth straight quarter that the company reported better than expected EPS and sales, and in response, the stock is poised to gap up 3.5% which would be the fourth time in a row that the stock gapped up in reaction to earnings. Shares of WMT have already been on a monster run for the last year after dropping below $50 late last year, but this morning the stock is at record highs around $87. One thing to be aware of is that on each of its last six earnings reaction days, the stock has traded down from the open to close.

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