A weekend of skyrocketing oil prices prompted by talk of the U.S. cutting off all Russian crude imports pushed markets to their worst performance in over a year to start the week. The Nasdaq is now down more than 20% from its November high, crossing from correction to bear-market territory, while the S&P500 is down 12.4% from its January record and the Dow found itself in correctionland - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Timely, then, to consider how the global economy will navigate its way through the uncertainty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the collective effort to punish the aggressor - WSJ
As well as what the oil industry will do without access to Russia’s considerable output of black gold - WSJ
In that vein, Shell is the latest energy giant to renounce its ties to the Russian oil & gas industry, “saying it would immediately halt all spot purchase of crude from the country and will phase out its other trading and business dealings” - WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Alphabet’s Google search arm will acquire cybersecurity powerhouse Mandiant in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $5.4 billion. Google anticipates the deal will close at the end of 2022 and likely sought out the company to “complement the security strengths of its Google Cloud business” - WSJ and MarketWatch
On the rise of the Axios news empire, the short-format-focused media company that’s investing $30 million into “expanding its footprint” to cities, industries, and workplaces - NYTimes
U.S. automakers, woefully behind their Asian counterparts in the development of electric car batteries, are “racing” to make up for lost time—in part by “embracing start-ups working to remake the battery so they are not left behind by the industrial revolution unleashed by the electric car” - NYTimes
Activist investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has disclosed a $1 billion stake in Canadian Pacific Railway. As has more frequently been the case in recent years, Ackman is suggesting that “the investment was friendly,” but with CanPac trying to get regulatory approval “for its proposed $27 billion merger with Kansas City Southern” at the moment, any news of Ackman’s interest is worth a deeper dive - WSJ
The Biden Administration will take a major step forward this week in laying out a strategy for cryptocurrencies, with a coming executive order expected to “direct federal agencies to examine potential regulatory changes, as well as the national security and economic impact of digital assets.” The White House will do all of this against the backdrop of recent criticism that Russia is using cryptos to evade the stiff sanctions levied against it over its Ukraine invasion - Bloomberg and WSJ
Samsung revealed this week that hackers “breached its security system and accessed company data relating to its Galaxy devices.” While the stolen material reportedly “didn’t include personal information of consumers or employees,” it did include source code for Galaxy phone operating systems - WSJ
Enjoying this exploration of Parks for Profit: Selling Nature in the City, the newly released book from Kevin Loughran that considers the rise of the “post-industrial park”—the “glitzy” urban projects that often “rely on private funders” and can siphon resources from other public places - Bloomberg
Stay safe, and get boosted,
MDR
