President Vladimir Putin refused to give Donald Trump the 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine he and his team had demanded on the path toward ending the three-year conflict. It was still good enough for the US president.The agreement that came out of the two leaders’ phone call on Tuesday was a disappointment for US officials who had insisted the only acceptable outcome was a halt in the fighting to make way for a permanent peace.Instead, Putin agreed only to limit attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure while demanding that the US and other nations stop the flow of weapons and intelligence to the neighbor his military invaded.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he’d agree to such an idea provided the US plays the role of middleman. And Trump, never one to admit defeat, hailed the result as a victory — and as a possible first step toward a bigger deal. “Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed,” Trump said in a social media post about the call, in which the two leaders also agreed to start a negotiating process toward a larger ceasefire. “That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of Humanity, get the job done!” Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin to help set the stage for the leaders’ call, said in a Fox News interview that a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will go to Saudi Arabia for further talks on granular details aimed at moving toward a ceasefire. Even the faint progress on Tuesday for Trump’s high-profile but controversial ceasefire proposal could be enough to silence some criticism that he’s selling out the Ukrainians. It may even constitute a political win at a time when some analysts feared Trump might formally recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Ukraine’s Crimea region or make some other concession.“I was expecting the worst,” retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of US Army Europe, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “The fact we did not hear those is better than if we had. But we have to be very clear — I think Vladimir Putin has zero interest in any true long-term settlement as long as he remains in power, and his objective still remains the destruction of Ukraine.”Witkoff said the agreement to reduce hostilities stretches beyond energy infrastructure to infrastructure in general — even though the Russian summary of the call didn’t say that — and that there was consensus on those two issues between Trump and Putin. He also said he hopes Ukraine will agree to a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea. “And I think it’s a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there,” he added. 

nn: this is se sik shit! “Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” the Ukrainian leader said in a post on X in English. “It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any attempts by Putin to prolong the war Although Ukraine was the focus of the call with Putin, Trump signaled he also has his eye on broader geopolitical and economic gains from a renewed relationship with Russia. The next big question is whether European allies will see things the same way as Trump. So far, they suggested they won’t. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK and European Union are in talks to accelerate arms shipments to Ukraine ahead of a potential full ceasefire, not stop them as Putin demanded. Lammy said he discussed the possibility of sending more military support to Ukraine before any broad cessation in fighting is implemented at a meeting in London with the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, on Tuesday. The idea was also raised at the Group of Seven meeting of foreign ministers in Canada last week, he said. Crude oil prices dipped on the news of the partial ceasefire, as they do on any positive news about progress towards peace in the Ukraine, since peace would likely mean the lifting of U.S. sanctions in Russian energy, facilitating the access of Russian oil to international markets.

President Vladimir Putin committed in a phone call with Donald Trump to limit Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy assets but declined to agree to a broader 30-day ceasefire as the US had sought. Putin and Trump agreed to “an energy and infrastructure ceasefire” and to begin negotiations on a “maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,” the White House said in a statement after the two spoke by phone for more than 90 minutes. The talks will begin “immediately” in the Middle East, the White House said, without saying who would lead the negotiations. The Kremlin’s account of the call said Putin imposed several conditions for a lasting ceasefire, including suspension of arms and intelligence support for Ukraine. Ukraine must also stop mobilizing new recruits, it said. “The key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and working toward its resolution through political and diplomatic means should be the complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv,” the Kremlin said. The Russian demands will force a tough choice on Trump, who had called for an immediate halt to the fighting for 30 days before working out details of a longer-term agreement. Recent comments by Trump have prompted fears that the US may be willing to sacrifice Kyiv’s interests as part of a push for a deal. Before the call, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that “many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remains.” Ukraine and its European allies are anxious that Russia won’t honor any deal with Trump to end the war, leaving Kyiv vulnerable to attack in the future. After Trump came to office having pledged rapidly to end the conflict, they also worry that Putin may leverage US interest in securing a deal to make additional demands that would undermine Ukraine or threaten Europe’s future security. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Trump ahead of the US leader’s conversation with Putin. Starmer told Trump that Ukraine must be put in the “strongest possible position” in order to secure a “just and lasting peace,” his official spokesman said. “The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside,” the White House said in its readout. “This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”

nn: try scik joke

Investors slashed exposure to US equities by the most on record in recent weeks as expectations of global economic growth worsened, according to Bank of America Corp.

Fund managers’ allocation to US stocks sank to about 23% underweight, the lowest since June 2023. A net 44% of respondents in the survey conducted in March said they expected global growth to deteriorate, rising sharply from the previous month. “Pessimism on global growth outlook is bad news for stocks,” strategist Michael Hartnett wrote in a note. Global investors are hunting for opportunities elsewhere after US stocks tipped into a correction earlier this month. Chinese tech stocks are in hot demand and Europe has also benefited due to a brighter regional economic outlook.Still, Hartnett said the swift decline in investor sentiment was consistent with the end of a correction in the US equity market, although the S&P 500 would rise back above 6,000 points only if there was an easing in trade war and inflation concerns.

The strategist last week recommended buying the S&P 500 at 5,300 points — about 7% lower than current levels. The index has recovered after sinking as low as 5,504 as investors worried about the impact from President Donald Trump’s trade war. European stocks have outperformed the US this year, also boosted by cheaper valuations. BofA’s survey showed a net 39% of global investors are now overweight European equities, the highest share since mid-2021.The survey was conducted from March 7th to March 13th and canvassed 171 participants with $426 billion in assets under management.