For yet another week, investors are keeping a watchful eye on the geopolitical tensions in Ukraine. After Russia's recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and amid escalating tensions in the region, the United States and the European Union have already announced sanctions.
The stock market swings in recent weeks were no coincidence: geopolitical tensions, which seem to have subsided at times, have been added to the mix along with the uncertainties about growth and inflation.
The markets can rest easy for a few days. The Kremlin's announcement of the partial pullback of its troops from the Ukrainian border came as a relief to many investors, who saw the indexes dip into the red on Monday, although this situation has not erased the recent losses.
A few days ago, the Eurozone inflation data for January was published along with the inflation outlook for 2022 onwards contained in the EC document.
The global economy is currently at a point of tense calm: several open fronts are putting pressure on investors’ decisions in a context of increasing uncertainty in the markets.
Fears that economies will not be able to withstand a near-term tightening of monetary policies continue to weigh on investor sentiment.
Any number of things could go wrong in 2022, whether related to Omicron or other potential COVID19 variants, misguided Fed policy, runaway inflation, or geopolitical tensions with China and Russia.
The start of the new financial year has been marked by an unusual phenomenon in the financial markets: European stock markets are performing better than Wall Street.
Securities markets have started off the year with their worst performance since 2016. In the current scenario, characterized during the last few weeks by disappointing performance in the tech industry and high volatility, one conclusion can be drawn: this may be one of the most difficult years to manage.