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Russia will halt bond sales, France set for an election rematch and Musk declines a Twitter board seat.Bond sales haltedRussia will halt bon [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Russia will halt bond sales, France set for an election rematch and Musk declines a Twitter board seat. Bond sales halted [Russia]( will halt bond sales for the rest of the year and take legal action if sanctions force it into a default on its debt, according to the country’s finance minister. [Russian Railways]( has been ruled in default on a bond after missing an interest payment last month. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden will again [press India]( to take a harder stand on Russia’s war in Ukraine during a virtual meeting today. The [European Union](urged member states to quickly provide Kyiv with the weapons it has asked for, and [Societe Generale]( will exit Russia. [Austria’s Chancellor]( Karl Nehammer said he’ll meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. Rematch French President Emmanuel Macron is set to face his nationalist rival Marine Le Pen in the April 24 [final round]( of the [French election]( in a re-run of their 2017 contest. While polls give Macron an advantage heading into the final phase of the campaign, Le Pen has been gaining momentum and she’s already added more than 10 points to her showing in the 2017 election. The euro gained and European [bond yields](rose. Elsewhere, the relentless rise in [Treasury yields](sent ripples through global markets and real yields headed toward zero threaten to weigh on stocks. Musk declines Twitter shares fell after Elon Musk turned down an offer to [join its board]( in a surprise move. The abrupt reversal ignites renewed speculation about Musk’s intentions for Twitter since disclosing he had taken a stake of just over 9%. Musk is not short of creative ideas for the social networking platform. He floated the idea of turning Twitter headquarters into a [homeless shelter](, prompting a tweet of support from Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, and last week tweeted out a poll asking if there should be an edit button. The mere thought that Twitter’s most high-profile user would help run the company has [gotten everyone talking](. Stocks drop [Stocks slipped]( as the European bond market rout continued. S&P 500 futures traded 0.5% lower, while Nasdaq 100 contracts tumbled close to 1% as of 5:40 a.m. New York time. In European stocks, tech and consumer products dragged the Stoxx 600 lower as it fell 0.5%. The short end of German, Irish and French bonds underperformed those on the periphery in Greece, Italy and Portugal. Oil fell, with WTI contracts down to around $96 a barrel. The ten-year Treasury yield stood at 2.7477%. The dollar was little changed. Gold rallied, while Bitcoin fell about 3% to trade around the $41,000-level. Coming up... It’s a rather quiet start to the week with no major data releases due during U.S. hours. We do have a few Fed speakers scheduled, including Raphael Bostic, Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller at a Fed Listens event starting around 9.30 a.m. New York time. The Fed's Charles Evans will speak on the economy and monetary policy at 12:40 p.m. Bond sales today include $46 billion of 3-year notes at 1 p.m. What we've been reading Here's what caught our eye over the weekend. - [Covid]( could be surging in U.S. right now. - Tech rout could drag [Bitcoin]( to $30,000. - Amazon’s [drone delivery]( program hit by crashes. - [U.S. inflation]( may peak in March but stay elevated. - Startups transforming [pleasure boating](. - [Flying motorbike]( maker prepares for IPO. - Economists say [recession risk]( is rising. And finally, here’s what Joe’s interested in this morning Housing is a crucial aspect of the economy that currently touches on at least three critical dimensions. To start, it's a consumption asset. Finding and paying for shelter each month is one of the most basic necessities people have. It's also a macro asset. It's been a key component of economic cycles for almost two decades now, from the bubble, to the bust, to the recovery, to the 2018 slowdown, to the pandemic-era surge. People buy homes as investments, or as financial protection from rising rates, a way to lock in a monthly price. And it's also a manufactured asset, with its own complex supply chain. People didn't think much of that aspect for a long time, up until recently. But now everyone's attuned to the price of lumber, or the availability of faucets, windows, and garage doors. So it really intersects with everything. [On the latest Odd Lots podcast](, we speak with Bloomberg Opinion Columnist and founder of Peachtree Creek Investments [Conor Sen]( alongside [Dustin Jalbert](, economist and lumber expert at Fast Markets. The subject is the state of housing, with mortgages nationally near 5%. We get into both the macro (prices, interest rates, demographics) and the micro (is there enough wood and other products to keep building more homes?). Two charts really help tell the story of housing right now. The first is the growing gap that's emerging between Housing Starts (which keep going up) and Housing Completions (which keep going sideways). The story here is simple. Homebuilders can start as many homes as they want. But if there's a scarcity of lumber or labor or anything else, the homes won't actually get built. And that's what we're seeing in this chart, where there's a clear difference in the direction between the two lines, the likes of which we don't really see over the previous 20 years. The second is a chart of the homebuilder KB Homes. The white line is the share price and the yellow line is the book value as of the most recent quarter. As you can see, the company is trading below the value of its assets (land, unsold or partially built homes etc.)  The upshot is, with the company now trading below book, that the company may be expected to take writedowns on its assets. This seems wild, with demand for housing still seemingly sky high. But with interest rates having soared recently, and supply chains not having improved significantly (at least in the housing realm), the builders could face a situation where by the time the homes are actually completed and available, the demand may have taken a significant hit, simply due to affordability alone. Anyway, the whole conversation is fascinating and topical. Check it out on [Apple here]( or [Spotify here](. Follow Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on Twitter [@TheStalwart]( Special Daily Brief: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine [Keep up with the latest news]( on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of the worst security crises in Europe since World War II. Like Bloomberg's Five Things? [Subscribe for unlimited access]( to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Follow Us Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Five Things - Americas newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. 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