Sanctions imposed against Russia's central bank
The United States announced sanctions against Russia, prohibiting Americans from doing business with the Russia's central bank. The new measures will also target the National Wealth Fund, and the Ministry of Finance, of the Russian Federation.
This is in addition to the US, European allies, and Canada agreeing to remove key Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT, severing the country from much of the global financial system.
Russia central bank increases key interest rate to 20%
New sanctions and penalties imposed on Russia by the US and Europe, in addition to this, has seen the ruble hit a record low against the dollar.
The central bank stated the rate hike, from 9.5% to 20%, was designed to offset the increased risk of ruble depreciation and inflation.
The bank also said it would be freeing 733 billion rubles (US$ 8.78 billion) in local bank reserves to boost liquidity.
Earnings season
As earning seasons come near a close, companies such as Alibaba and Home Depot have released earnings.
Alibaba's earnings reported 242.58 billion yuan in revenue vs the estimate of 246.37 billion yuan. This is their slowest quarterly growth in revenue ever, with a 10% revenue growth. Their EPS dropped to 16.87 yuan, a 23% year over year fall.
Home Depot report sales growth of 11% in their fourth fiscal quarter, topping Wall Street's expectations and sees sales growth moving forward for 2022. Their share price however, fell 8.85% after their earnings release, as they attributed some of its latest sales gains to rising prices.
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