Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - The house always wins

Exactly one year ago today, Chris Perrotta joined a revolution on Wall Street: He bought one of those crazy meme stocks and went on to make a small fortune. Today Perrotta, like countless other amateur traders who pushed stocks “to the moon” and challenged the pros during the early 2021 mania, is watching the dreams of a new Wall-Street order collapse around him. Meme stocks, cryptocurrencies and the broader stock market have all dropped with astonishing speed this year, and few think the pain will end here. It would seem that the ancient rule still applies, even at the dawn of a new era of money: the house always wins. —David E. Rovella 

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

On Tuesday, an afternoon rebound for stocks proved short-lived, with major averages ending lower as investors remained on edge over the Fed’s inflation-fighting stance and Russia’s threatening buildup around Ukraine. The S&P 500 closed at the lowest since October, with technology shares weighing heavily on the market. Here’s your markets wrap.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he’d consider sanctioning Vladimir Putin personally if he orders a further invasion of neighboring Ukraine, where his forces already occupy the Crimean peninsula in the south and support a proxy war that’s killed 14,000 in the east. With upwards of 120,000 troops massed on Ukraine’s borders and military exercises underway across the globe, the Kremlin said the Pentagon’s decision to place 8,500 U.S. troops on alert “exacerbates tensions.” The White House also reportedly said it is finalizing global plans to provide natural gas to Europe following any Moscow cutoff. Here’s the latest on the crisis.

President Joe Biden threatened to personally sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin if he orders any new incursion into Ukraine. Above, Biden stopped at an ice cream shop in Washington on Tuesday.  Photographer: Oliver Contreras/Sipa

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin helped derail much of Biden’s first year legislative agenda by (along with fellow Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona) siding with 50 Republicans who blocked efforts to protect voting access as well as funding for healthcare, social programs and the fight against global warming. As for Biden’s infrastructure package, not only did Manchin support it, his state—the 40th by population and 41st by size—is getting the second highest amount of cash for some of its highways. 

The former head of a Swiss bank went on trial Tuesday charged with enriching himself and others through millions of dollars in side deals and illegal expenses—including allegedly racking up a 201,267 Swiss-franc ($220,000) tab at a string of cabarets, strip clubs and “contact bars.”

Pierin Vincenz, former chief executive officer of Raiffeisen Switzerland Photographer: Matthew Lloyd

Nvidia is quietly preparing to abandon its purchase of Arm Ltd. from SoftBank Group after making little to no progress in winning approval for the $40 billion chip deal.

A United Arab Emirates investment firm linked to an influential member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family has emerged as a backer of one of the largest funds in venture capital history, joining forces with New York-based Alpha Wave to deploy $10 billion with a focus on India.

Amazon and Netflix are targeting Indian viewers, partnering with an Indian production house to push out movies and web series as the battle for content heats up in one of the world’s largest entertainment markets.

• Covid’s deadly arm grows longer. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.
• Bloomberg Opinion: Boomerang rally augurs deep market troubles.
• Companies raked in cash during the stock bubble; now investors pay.
• Businessweek: The tragicomedy of Boris Johnson enters its final act.
• Navy’s newest aircraft carrier may not be so good at defending itself.
• Wynn Resorts plans a multibillion-dollar resort off the UAE coast.
• China’s first rule of Fight Club? Censor it. 

An assortment of Beatles memorabilia, including outfits worn by John Lennon and handwritten notes by Paul McCartney, will feature in a new digital auction. Lennon’s son, Julian Lennon, has announced the start of bidding for the items which will be sold as non-fungible tokens as part of Lennon Connection: The NFT Collection.

John Lennon on the set of Help! in 1965. Photographer: Michael Ochs Archives/Moviepix/Getty Images

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