The US stock market direction remains dominated by the events in Ukraine, with little in the way of company-specific news.
Russia hikes rates
The weekend saw an aggressive expansion in sanctions against Russia, including banning the country from using the global SWIFT payments system.
The result has been a rumoured run on Russian banks with balances deemed all but useless. The central bank has sought to protect the tumbling currency by hiking interest rates from 9.5% to 20% in hopes this will attract bond buyers, whilst the sharemarket has been halted after the likes of Sberbank fell 75% in UK trading.
Teladoc jumps on Amazon partnership, trade deficit surges
Over 90% of S&P 500 companies fell on Monday, with beaten-down Teladoc (NASDAQ: TDOC) adding 6% after announcing a tie-up with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) for its e-health delivery.
The Dow Jones finished down 0.5%, the S&P 500 fell 0.2% and the Nasdaq gained 0.4%.
The US trade deficit also hit a record high, up 7.1% to US$107 billion as imports continue to outweigh exports. Oil major BP (LON: BP) also announced it would exit its US$25 billion investment in Rosneft, the Russian oil company that represents half of its oil and gas reserves.
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is set to open higher this morning. For a round-up of the latest news, check out my ASX 200 morning report.
