Time for a Hump Day rally? Markets are looking to shake their funk of the past few weeks — heck, for 2022 overall — and this morning the buyers are back at it: the Dow is +525 points at this hour, the Nasdaq is +285 and the S&P 500 is +75 points. This is the strongest we’ve seen the markets since… yesterday, when indexes gave up big moves into the green not once but twice.

Oil prices are taking a bit of a break in today’s early trading, with the WTI down -4.8% and the Brent -4.4%, though we’re obviously still at highs not seen since the Great Recession. We’re also not seeing an end to the Russian aggression throughout Ukraine, even as talks resume to establish some peaceful avenues toward an end to the conflict. As it is, America has pulled up stakes in Russia, its banks cannot access international funds, and now Russian oil will no longer be bought in the U.S. and, eventually, the U.K.

Hopes are this war will not amount to a long-term onslaught of the Ukrainian people, but the rest of the world is going to have to get used to bricking off Russia from the global economy as long as Putin remains in power there. It’s painful in the short-term, but may generate newer, better ways of resourcing and using energy — including transferring to renewable alternatives — and sending a message to would-be aggressors that stiff sanctions await your bad actions.

Travel and Leisure stocks look particularly flush this morning, with cruise lines like Carnival ((CCL Quick QuoteCCL - Free Report) and Royal Caribbean ((RCL Quick QuoteRCL - Free Report) up big in today’s pre-market, taking a bite out of some of the 20%+ sell-offs we’ve seen since the start of the year. Meanwhile, oil plays like Occidental Petroleum ((OXY Quick QuoteOXY - Free Report) and Halliburton ((HAL Quick QuoteHAL - Free Report) are being hit in early trading hours.

Finally, Bitcoin is up +8% on news that the Biden administration is forming a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, both in trading and development. At first glance, this would seem to negate one of the principle advantages of crypto — that no government oversight means it can trade freely within its own marketplace — but the hazardous whipsaws we’ve seen without such oversight have kept many potential crypto customers on the sidelines; perhaps they’ll be more likely to dip a toe into the water now.