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Ukraine Crisis Moving in Slow Motion; PANW, TOL Beat

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Following Russia’s move into two bordering regions of the Donbas province of Ukraine, President Biden made an address whereby he spelled out a first tranche of sanctions hitting Russian elite oligarchs, who control most of the country’s assets. Biden also said he is “ready to press the button versus the largest Russian banks” should further Russian aggression develop, with “all options on the table.”

Welcome to the slow-motion battle between two of the world’s most impactful nations. It’s not all-out war yet; we’re still in the “test of wills” stage. But the rubber is hitting the road, and markets are paying the price: the Dow fell another -1.42% on the day, while the S&P 500 dipped -1.02%. The Nasdaq dropped an additional -1.23%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 posted the worst results among the major indexes, -1.45%.

That said, Biden’s address did appear to turn bearish sentiment around to an extent; the Dow had been down more than -700 points at its session lows, closing -482. Nevertheless, it amounts to the fourth-straight down day for both the Dow and Nasdaq, the third straight for the S&P. Off year-to-date highs, the Dow is -9%, the S&P -10.66%, the Nasdaq -17.5% and the Russell -19.5%. Correction territory — and then some.

U.S. policy is being very careful in its moves to thwart (or limit) Russian aggression in Ukraine; after all, big moves tend to have big implications in the global marketplace, and this definitely applies to one of the biggest oil and gas distributors in the world. While the U.S. wants to clamp down on Russia’s ability to secure debt on their wartime footing, initially it described how this would not affect the secondary market for Russian debt-holders. Now U.S. officials have clarified: secondary markets holding Russian debt will also be impacted, but only on those bonds issued on March 1st, 2022 or after.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW - Free Report) shares are bouncing around quite a bit in the late session, after beating estimates on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q2 report after Tuesday’s closing bell. Earnings of $1.74 per share outpaced the Zacks consensus by 9 cents, while revenues of $1.32 billion took out the $1.28 billion analysts were expecting — +30% year over year. This marks the 13th straight quarter the Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm has beaten estimates on both top and bottom lines. Shares are currently +6% in late trading.

Upscale homebuilder Toll Brothers (TOL - Free Report) also beat expectations on top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q1 report Tuesday afternoon, with earnings of $1.24 per share on $1.79 billion in sales surpassing the $1.12 per share and $1.77 billion in the Zacks consensus. Shares are flat in after-hours activity, but still down more than -25% year to date.

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