That leads nicely to a recent research report written by 13D Research & Strategy, a thematic investment research firm, which tackled the subject of the investment implications of the race for Arctic dominance. As the Earth warms due to climate change, more efficient shipping lanes are opening up, at a time when the relationship between the U.S. and Russia has rarely been worse. That’s not to mention the roughly 160 billion barrels of oil and estimated $1 trillion worth of metals and minerals located there.

And while Russia has struggled on the battlefield vs. Ukraine, the country is widely regarded as having superiority in the colder region, with several deep-water ports in the Arctic, the world’s most advanced fleet of icebreakers — the U.S. Navy has none — and more bases than NATO countries in the region.

The U.S. and the other Arctic Council members — Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — are playing catch up. The U.S. last year reactivated the 11th Airborne division in Alaska for the first time in decades, and through Friday is conducting a training exercise in Finland and Norway focused on building Arctic military capabilities and cooperation, not just with those countries but also with troops from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K.

And of course, there’s big money being spent, too. Defense contractors including Lockheed Martin
LMT,
-1.23%,
L3 Harris
LHX,
-2.84%,
Northrop Grumman
NOC,
-1.42%,
Raytheon
RTX,
-1.34%
and AeroVironment
AVAV,
-2.44%
offer products for Arctic deployment, and Israel’s Elbit Systems
ESLT,
+1.09%
offers Arctic-capable unmanned aerial vehicles, says the 13D report. Several European and Nordic defense companies stand to benefit, including Saab
SAABY,
-4.13%,
BAE Systems
BA,
+1.23%,
recent DAX entrant Rheinmetall
RHM,
-0.47%,
Hensoldt
HAG,
-1.07%
and Leonardo
LDO,
+1.71%.

Granted, defense stocks actually tailed off after a big initial rally when Russia first invaded Ukraine, and have zig-zagged since then. The 13D team say the defense stocks are part of a longer-term trend toward deglobalization, that could play out over decades.

In other reports the firm has highlighted less well-known companies including Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
7011,
+1.59%,
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
7012,
+1.52%,
Ishikawa Seisakusho
6208,
+1.68%,
Howa Machinery
6203,
+1.95%
and Hosoya Pyro-Engineering
4274,
+1.64%
; India’s Bharat Electronics
500049,
-0.68%,
Bharat Dynamics
541143,
+0.61%
and Hindustan Aernoautics
541154,
-0.93%
; and South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace
012450,
-6.67%,
Hanwha Systems
272210,
-2.62%,
LIG Next1
079550,
-3.00%,
Korea Aerospace Industries
047810,
-2.58%
and Hyundai Rotem
064350,
-3.48%,
as those countries look to build out their defense capabilities.

The market

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-1.63%
losing more than 500 points. The yield on the 10-year Treasury
TMUBMUSD10Y,
3.444%
dropped to 3.47%.

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The buzz

Credit Suisse shares
CS,
-5.48%
tumbled to a new record low in Zurich, a day after it revealed material weaknesses in financial controls. European rivals are sliding too.

Retail sales fell 0.4% in February, and producer prices surprisingly dropped, falling 0.1%. Core PPI also came in cooler than forecast..

Regional banks including First Republic Bank
FRC,
-15.47%
continued to be active in premarket trade. Citigroup
C,
-3.02%
shares fell 4%.

Best of the web

Robinhood users say the firm won’t let them cash in their profitable bets against Silicon Valley Bank
SIVB,
-60.41%,
because the shares aren’t trading anymore.

Though it’s known for its recent foray into cryptocurrencies, Signature Bank
SBNY,
-22.87%
was a major provider of commercial real estate finance to the New York metro area.

Sandwiches are the saboteur of the American diet.

Top tickers

Here were the most active stock-market tickers as of 6 a.m. Eastern.

Random reads

Who says America is litigious? A man is suing Buffalo Wild Wings on the grounds that its boneless wings are actually just chicken nuggets.

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Florida is under attack, from a giant blob of seaweed.

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