Russia-Ukraine tensions are the on the front page and that is seeing fear engulf markets at the moment.
The mood is somewhat calmer today but sentiment is sitting on the edge. Any gun fire (literally) and everything will start running and cowering in terror as we saw towards the end of last week.
Oil is up another 1.4% to $94.40 but we are seeing some light reprieve/hope with gold down 0.4% to $1,852 and US futures up a touch by 0.2%. In FX, changes are light but the dollar is still keeping in a decent spot while the aussie and kiwi are lagging slightly.
As for the war playbook, Adam outlined it pretty detailed and well in this post here. If you haven't checked it out, you should.
In any case, when it comes to war and almost anything involving fear in the market, the words and trade mentality I always adhere to is one that Jim Rogers used to always preach. Buy value, sell hysteria.
If there's a comet projected to hit earth and wipe out humanity, you should buy the dip anyway. At worst, we all die together. But by any chance the comet misses and we all survive, guess what? The world will carry on as it did before.
Of course, timing is everything and we're not quite at the stage where real fear is striking the hearts of markets just yet.
That will entirely depend on Russia's appetite for a war but if and when that happens, just remember. Don't panic when the world does. Fade fear. Buy value, sell hysteria.
As much as a war between Russia and Ukraine is awful, it doesn't quite hold lasting major reverberations for markets unless Russia is sanctioned out of the global financial system.
