Stock futures fall as Russia steps up its attacks against Ukraine; countries around the world slam through sanctions against Russia, Musk and his brother reportedly face an SEC investigation related to insider trading, bitcoin rebounds and masks are about to come off.
Here are five things you must know for Friday, February 25:
1. -- Stock Futures Fall As Russia Launches 'Full Scale' Ukraine Invasion
U.S. equity futures plunged lower Friday, following Thursday's sharp reversal as investors continued to take a risk-off stance related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Global markets regained some of the poise lost Thursday following what has been described as the largest military attack on European soil since the Second World War after President Joe Biden stopped short of some of the most severe measures investors had thought might be on the table.
The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.7%, led by shares of resource and travel companies. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 2%, and the CSI 300, which comprises the largest stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, rose 1%, after both fell Thursday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.6%.
Russia’s Moex stock-market gauge, which posted a historic plunge Thursday, rose around 13%.
On Wall Street, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 287 points or 0.8%. S&P 500 futures also fell 0.8% and Nasdaq 100 futures traded 0.7% lower.
Commodity prices were mostly lower, with natural gas futures off 2.3% to $4.53. Oil edged lower, with West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, trading at $92.59 a barrel while Brent crude was at $98.81 after jumping above $100 Thursday.
Government bond yields were mixed, with longer-dated debt lower and shorter maturities higher. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note most recently yielded 1.96%, down 1.2 basis points.
The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv came under renewed bombing in the early hours of Friday as Russian forces pushed to the edge of the city. President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed not to surrender and the capital’s defenders geared up for urban combat.
“This morning, we are defending our country all alone,” Zelensky said in a television address in Kyiv. “The most powerful nations of the world are just watching from afar."
2. -- Countries Around the World Impose Sanctions on Russia
The European Union, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan all hit Moscow with new sanctions on Friday, condemning the military incursion that has unfolded over the past 24 hours.
On Thursday, the U.S. and U.K. also unveiled more measures against Russia as both nations' leaders condemned the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The sanctions that have already been announced are significant in size and scope, former Treasury and State Department officials who handled U.S. sanctions in the past told NBC News, but the longtime U.S. reliance on the national security tool has left the U.S. with few other options if Putin and Russia do not respond.
Regardless, the Russian economy is already feeling the effects of war, and the sanctions could over time further cause the Russian stock market to falter, deflate the value of the ruble — which hit an all-time low Thursday — and make doing business in Russia increasingly difficult.
Meantime, Ukraine is also urging the West to ban Russia from SWIFT, the high security network that facilitates payments among 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries. And earlier in the week, Germany halted certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline following Moscow's actions.
3. -- Elon Musk and His Brother Reportedly Facing SEC Investigation
Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and his brother, Kimbal Musk, are reportedly being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission over whether recent stock sales violated insider-trading rules.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the SEC’s investigation began last year after Kimbal Musk sold shares of Tesla valued at $108 million, one day before the Tesla chief polled Twitter users asking whether he should unload 10% of his stake in the electric-car maker and pledging to abide by the vote’s results.
Elon Musk had framed the potential sale as a way to cover any taxes he would need to pay if lawmakers imposed new taxes on unrealized capital gains. He began selling billions of dollars worth of stock a few days after his tweet.
Kimbal Musk sold 88,500 shares one day before the Tesla CEO tweeted about the potential sales of his own. The company’s shares fell sharply in the wake of Mr. Musk’s poll—58% of voters said he should sell—indicating the tweet was viewed as negative news.
Tesla has recently accused the SEC of harassing the company and its chief executive by repeatedly launching new enforcement investigations. The friction dates to a 2018 lawsuit in which regulators accused Elon Musk of misleading investors with a tweet that said he could take the company private and had the funding to do so.
4. -- Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Rebound
Cryptocurrencies jumped on Friday following a steep sell-off a day earlier that saw around $150 billion wiped off the market after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Bitcoin was up almost 10% at $38,463.33, according to Coindesk. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has risen above $39,000 in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin had fallen as low as $34,338.57 on Thursday.
Other digital coins including ether, Solana and XRP also saw double-digit percentage gains.
Cryptocurrencies suffered the same fate as stocks on Thursday following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, countering some supporters' claims that the bitcoin in particular is a safe haven in times of volatility.
Bitcoin—the digital asset most often referred to as an alternative to gold—plunged 8% within hours of Russia invading Ukraine, while ether, the native currency of the game-building blockchain Ethereum, crashed 7%.
Ethereum rival Solana, which is popular among NFT creators, tanked 10% to $83.
Meanwhile, bitcoin donations to the Ukrainian army continue to flow in. Data from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic shows that over a 12-hour window, nearly $400,000 in bitcoin was donated to Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian NGO providing support to Ukraine’s armed forces.
5. -- CDC Expected to Loosen Mask Guidelines
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to loosen its guidelines for when and where Americans should wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, allowing most people to go without them in public indoor spaces, according to two federal officials familiar with the matter.
The Associated Press, which first reported the change, said the new policy was expected to be announced Friday. The two officials who spoke to The Times did not confirm the timing.
Under the current guidelines, the agency recommends that anyone living in areas with substantial or high transmission of the coronavirus, as defined by case counts, should wear masks in public indoor spaces like gyms, movie theaters and full-capacity houses of worship.
That means that people living in 95 percent of the counties in the U.S. should continue wearing masks indoors. The country is recording an average of about 76,000 new cases per day, a roughly 66 percent drop from two weeks ago.
The forthcoming recommendations are expected to hinge on newly defined metrics to determine whether people in a particular geographical area are at high risk from the virus. They will place less emphasis on case counts and give more weight to hospitalizations as a key measure of risk, according to a federal official who is familiar with the plans but was not authorized to speak about them.
