Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk, your end-of-week briefing on the stories moving the needle.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed this weekend that newly printed one-hundred-dollar bills bearing President Donald Trump's signature are entering circulation, timed to the nation's two-hundred-fiftieth birthday. The move is ceremonial in nature, but it raises eyebrows among currency traditionalists, as presidential signatures on Federal Reserve notes have no modern precedent.
Shifting overseas, Russia's domestic fuel crisis is deepening in ways that carry real macroeconomic weight. Ukraine's sustained drone campaign against Russian oil refining infrastructure has taken an estimated twenty-five percent or more of the country's refining capacity offline. Motorists are now waiting up to eighteen hours in line for gasoline, a supply shock that echoes Soviet-era scarcity and signals mounting pressure on the Kremlin's energy economy.
And on a separate note, Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, faces potential misdemeanor charges following a hit-and-run collision in Napa County's Yountville on Friday. Authorities say the eighty-six-year-old struck another vehicle, leaving it with major damage, before leaving the scene. Local law enforcement is reviewing the incident.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
