Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Russia isolated, markets drop, commodities surge again.

Russian and Ukrainian officials are meeting this morning for talks aimed at ending the four-day-old war. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he did not believe much would come of the meeting. The costs for Russia are rapidly rising as Western nations impose more stringent sanctions on the country’s financial sector, including its central bank. That institution hiked its key rate from 9.5% to 20% in an attempt to halt a plunge in the ruble. The currency traded as low as 109 to the dollar this morning. It closed at 83 to the dollar on Friday. The central bank also announced there would be no trading of Russian stocks today.