Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - NATO responds

Vladimir Putin’s placement of more than 100,000 troops and heavy armaments on Ukraine’s southern, eastern and northeastern borders is now being supplemented with Russian forces in ally Belarus, on Ukraine’s northwestern flank and close to its capital, Kyiv. After weeks of unsuccessful diplomacy, the Kremlin’s increasingly ominous behavior has now stirred the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to begin defensive military preparations. Some NATO allies are sending defensive weapons to Ukraine (which is not a NATO member) while NATO is planning to move more troops and equipment to Eastern European member states. Putin is continuing to up the ante with Russian naval exercises slated worldwide, including in the Baltic, Mediterranean and even off the coast of Ireland. His adjutants are making noises about a strategic partnership with Cuba, including putting troops and even missiles there, in Venezuela or Nicaragua. Putin has demanded simultaneously with his aggressive military moves that NATO roll back forces from member states—nations formerly contained within the USSR. It seems however that he’s about to achieve the opposite: U.S. President Joe Biden is contemplating sending thousands of American GIs to Eastern Europe. And for the first time since the Cold War, a U.S. carrier battle group is heading to sea under NATO command. —David E. Rovella 

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

Stock market bears say their calls have finally been vindicated. Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson is the latest to claim his warnings were spot on. The strategist, who has long been a skeptic of the rally that pushed U.S. equities to successive records, said January’s rout “fits nicely” with his so-called fire and ice narrative. The markets on Monday didn’t disappoint at first, heading for the basement. But the tide turned in the afternoon, and equities actually closed up. Here’s your markets wrap.

The “rocky” stretch for U.S. stocks is far from over, warns this market expert, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes poised to fall into bear markets thanks to the Federal Reserve’s newfound zeal to undercut inflation.

Regardless of the Wall Street see-saw, the U.S. economy continues to be seen by experts as firing on all thrusters (for now), with a sunny consensus among economists for continued strong growth this year. 

International Business Machines reported revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, buoyed by strong demand in the software unit which includes IBM’s hybrid-cloud offering, signaling that the company’s efforts to transform itself may be bearing fruit.

Real estate investment is regularly considered a solid approach to hedge against inflation. But these days, is that really a good bet? 

Pfizer and BioNTech said a pair of studies confirmed that three doses of their Covid-19 vaccine produce antibodies that can neutralize the omicron variant. The World Health Organization said Europe is entering a “new phase” of the pandemic, driven by omicron’s milder symptoms, lower risk of hospitalization and the efficacy of shots. And Beijing eased a testing requirement for the Winter Olympics even as a growing number of cases are being found. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

Hardly a week goes by without a call to improve financial literacy. Last week, the European Union advocated for making such education a priority. But Stuart Trow and Marcus Ashworth, writing in Bloomberg Opinion, say lack of knowledge isn’t the main reason why families struggle with money. Not having enough of it, together with inflation and the current economic environment, are the real culprits, and need to be addressed first.

• Bitcoin bounces off lows as the digital rout shows signs of easing.
• Meanwhile, crypto’s correlation with stocks could be a lifeline.
• Why Americans may not be ready for the next pandemic.
• Tesla runs the most productive auto factory in America.
• This Hong Kong billionaire lost half of her fortune on China probe.
• For U.S. taxpayers, this filing season will be ugly.
• Rich kids keep submitting SAT scores that aren’t required anymore.

Can a music scene still develop the way hip-hop did in the Bronx in the 1970s or grunge did in 1990’s Seattle? Or has the digital makeover of music made such geographical-based explosions obsolete? It’s a question that hovers over the Sundance Film Festival documentary “Meet Me in the Bathroom,” a vivid time capsule of early 2000s New York, the last time Williamsburg was cool and when bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and LCD Soundsystem made the NYC the last identifiable hotbed of rock music.

From the documentary “Meet Me in the Bathroom” by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, an official selection of the Midnight section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.  Photographer: Rebecca Greenfield/Sundance Institute

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