Russia roundup: Moscow Exchange still closed, Airbnb suspends operations
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Europe's largest nuclear power plant, located in Enerhodar, Ukraine, came under attack from Russian shelling overnight, sparking a blaze and raising fears of a nuclear disaster. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy even spoke with President Biden, telling him that "if it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chernobyl," before the fire was extinguished and Russia took control of the facility. Stock futures whipsawed on the news, with the International Atomic Energy Agency saying "essential" equipment was not impacted and there had been no change to reported radiation levels.
Financial fallout: Russia is keeping the Moscow Exchange closed for a fifth straight day on Friday, trying to shield stocks from a potentially brutal selloff. Over in the U.S., FINRA halted OTC trading in several Russian stocks, while the London Stock Exchange suspended trading in more than 50 Russian securities to "maintain orderly markets." Another wave of sanctions has also hit Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin's inner circle, ratcheting up financial pressure in response to Moscow's "destabilizing foreign policy."
"We want [Putin] to feel the squeeze, we want the people around him to feel the squeeze," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
The corporate pullout is accelerating at the same time, with Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) announcing it would suspend all operations in Russia and Belarus. Earlier in the week, it offered to house 100K refugees for free in rentals listed on its platforms in countries that neighbor Ukraine. Google (GOOG, GOOGL) is also pausing all ads in Russia across YouTube, search and outside publishing partners, while "anything goes" Reddit (REDDIT) even banned links to Russian state-sponsored media outlets like RT and Sputnik.
Big rally: Commodities prices have been on a rip this week, with the war in Ukraine continuing to fuel fears of supply crunches. Examples: Wheat has soared to the highest level since 2008 (Ukraine and Russia account for a quarter of the world's exports), while crude and natural gas are up more than 20% this week as many spurn Russian energy sales. In response to the current environment, the EU went as far as to say it intended to more than double the amount of gas in storage before next winter to reduce its reliance on Russian supplies.