A Quiet Night, Quiet Open

Compared to yesterday or the day before or really any normal overnight session, it was remarkably quiet or perhaps that's just how it feels on a relative basis.

In any case, there was no groundbreaking news out of the Crimea and as such, a seemingly very dull night with a pretty dull open.

The Ukraine reaffirmed to its creditor, the Russian state-owned (largest Nat Gas producer in Russia) Gazsprom, that although they just paid off about $100 million of their gas bill, they won't have full payment for the $2 billion they owe which changes the terms of their contract with the gas giant and they lose their discount making a difficult economic situation almost impossible. However, the Fix-it-Foxes over at the EU are preparing a package nearing the $2 billion for Ukraine, as long as the IMF goes along for a total bailout package of somewhere around $15 billion dollars, it won't be hard for Russia to drain the Ukraine of their funds once the discount is lost and it almost seems like a "Mississippi Land Grab" situation in which Ukraine is either without energy or they perhaps... cede the Crimea to Russia for forgiveness of debts, could there actually be an aide package coming from Russia with such terms in some roundabout way? If so forget any money from the west, the Ukraine is only valuable to the west as an encirclement of Russia, without that function, I think the talks of IMF bailouts might rapidly fade unless they were really concerned about losing all of the Ukraine.

In any case, yesterday ended on a fairly volatile note, there are a few assets I'd consider with a little more time behind processes they are in so we'll see where things are going and try to have our feet pointed in that direction when they do.