Your Evening Briefing: Biden Says He Believes Russia Plans Ukraine Attack

President Joe Biden said U.S. intelligence has prompted him to believe that Vladimir Putin has decided to attack Ukraine, and that a new invasion including a strike on Kyiv could come within days. “We believe that they will target Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people,” Biden said Friday from the White House. The U.S. said Russia has massed as many as 190,000 personnel in and around Ukraine, including Russian-backed separatists, in what it called the most significant military mobilization since World War II. Leaders of separatist forces in Ukraine’s east have said they are sending children, women and elderly to Russia, a move NATO allies said may presage a false-flag event to cover a Russian invasion (Moscow has denied planning either action, or a massive cyberattack this week the U.S. contends the Kremlin was behind). The Ukrainian military said the rebels have accelerated shelling along the so-called contact line while the rebels accused the military of attacking them, which Kyiv has denied. In addition to conventional, live-fire exercises with Belarus along Ukraine’s northern border, Vladimir Putin has ordered drills of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces this weekend, including ballistic and cruise-missile launches. Here’s the latest on the crisis.

The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled into an ominous “death cross” technical formation Friday morning for the first time since April 2020. “When you hear ‘death cross’ your antenna goes up,” said Jay Woods, chief markets strategist at DriveWealth Institutional. “It doesn’t always mean doom and gloom is coming. It just means we’ll likely be in a more extended downtrend.” Here’s your markets wrap.