Expansion of the War in Easyern Europe?

Maybe. Maybe not. There were headlines that broke at Bloomberg and elsewhere as the zero-hours passed this morning, that Ukraine's armed forces had carried out their first strikes on Russian territory using US Army ATACMS armaments. Possibly in response, as I am not sure which came first, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a revision to his nation's nuclear doctrine.

The new declaration states that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power would be considered a joint attack on Russia. In short, Russia is threatening to go nuclear, now that the Biden administration has given Ukraine permission to strike back at Russia using US long-range missiles.

This will put a bid under US Treasuries, the US dollar, Gold, Silver and potentially Bitcoin as well. As the morning unfolds, these early moves could exacerbate, or ease given what develops overseas. Obviously, if the world becomes convinced that the Russian military is about to go to that next level, all market bets would be off. Right now, financial markets are clearly not fully convinced.

The ATACMS, which stands for Army Tactical Missile System and is a ballistic missile, is manufactured by Lockheed Martin (LMT). The system was designed in 1986 and is considered by the US military to be bordering on becoming obsolete. This weapon does not have the range of a cruise or intercontinental ballistic missile. What we are talking about is the low single digits in hundreds of miles worth of range. These missiles cannot strike Moscow from Ukrainian soil.