The ruble fell by the most since March 2020 after Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the two self-proclaimed republics by Ukrainian separatist forces and intensified the standoff with the West. The ruble fell below 80 to the dollar when Putin delivered a televised address to the Russian people on Monday night, while stocks tumbled as much as 18 percent in overnight trading. Earlier in the day, Russia's benchmark MOEX stock index closed down 11 percent, its biggest drop since Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula in March 2014. Russian stocks and the ruble were the worst performers globally on Monday. The West has accused Russia of stationing more than 150,000 troops near Ukraine, but the Kremlin has repeatedly denied plans to invade. Putin said during a meeting of the Federal Security Council on Monday that Russia was not considering annexation of the two regions.

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman backed a March rate hike, saying the magnitude of the rate hike should be determined by the economy, while acknowledging the possibility of a 50 basis point hike. "I support raising the federal funds rate at the next meeting in March, and if the economy develops as I expect, another hike in the next few months would be appropriate," Bowman said. "I will be watching the data closely to judge the appropriate magnitude of rate hikes at the March meeting," according to her prepared remarks. She was in Palm Desert, Calif., on Monday for the American Bankers Association's Community Banking Conference.

The Bundesbank said that after a record wave of infections caused by the omicron variant, economic activity was dragged down, putting Germany at risk of slipping into its second recession since the outbreak. The economy may have contracted "significantly" in the first quarter after shrinking by 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the Bundesbank's monthly report on Monday. "Unlike previous rounds of the pandemic, it's not just the services sector that has been hit by restrictions and adjusted its behavior," the Bundesbank said, noting that worker absences linked to the outbreak would also "significantly" hit economic activity in other sectors.

Chinese regulators are said to be asking large state-owned enterprises and financial institutions across the country to conduct a new round of comprehensive investigations into operations related to Ant Group. According to people familiar with the matter, a number of regulatory authorities, including the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, recently asked the institutions under their jurisdiction to conduct a comprehensive and detailed investigation of business cooperation with Ant Group, its subsidiaries, and shareholders as of the end of last month. Report the situation as soon as possible. People familiar with the matter said it was not clear the reason and purpose of the investigation, nor whether it would trigger any follow-up regulatory action. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission did not immediately respond to Bloomberg's request for comment, while Ant Group declined to comment. It has been more than a year since Ant Group’s $35 billion IPO plan was unexpectedly stalled. During the period, the Chinese government introduced a series of measures to strengthen supervision of Internet technology giants. The profit growth of technology giants including Alibaba and Tencent Holdings has been significantly affected. dragged down, the stock price fell.

In response to rising iron ore prices and maintaining long-term stability in the supply chain and market, China is reported to be taking a series of measures. People familiar with the matter said that China is preparing to establish a unified iron ore price negotiation platform at the national level, and plans to use the platform as the only entity in China to negotiate iron ore prices with foreign mines in the future. China is also urging major state-owned steel companies to speed up and expand mergers and acquisitions to increase industry concentration and increase the bargaining power in future iron ore negotiations, according to people familiar with the matter. In addition, China plans to build more domestic mining projects and buy more overseas mining interests, people familiar with the matter said.

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