Shaky Markets in Times of War

When war is on the horizon, global markets shake first and strengthen long before the war ends. In February, when the Russia-Ukraine conflict started, the U.S. stocks stumbled; S&P 500 & NASDAQ fell 2%. Commodity investors are conservative because, up until recently, the EU received 30% of their oil and gas from Russia.

The war will increase commodity prices. Besides oil, Russia is a big producer of minerals and metals like platinum, nickel, aluminum, cobalt, copper, gold, and diamonds. The prices of these materials will go up even more because they are needed to produce weapons.

In addition to the jump in commodity prices, the markets are stressed due to:

a) Rising interest rates

b) Sizzling inflation

c) Continuing supply-chain bottlenecks

People are stressed out, too. Due to this instability, they are holding off on buying houses, cars, and other big-ticket items. The unemployment rate is not helping. We can expect shaky times throughout this upcoming war.

Here we can see the oil prices with the Russian index.

The Russian market closed on March 25 to avoid even more losses, we will see even more losses in the next few days in the Russian market.

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