The Russian invasion of the Ukraine has many concerned about how it will affect an already struggling stock market.
A Billings financial adviser says there are concerns, but it's just one of the factors that will play a role.
"In geopolitical uncertainty such as a war between Ukraine and Russia and the impact it might have on our allies in Europe, certainly a catalyst to some of this volatility," said Todd Buchanan of Buchanan Capital, Inc. "You saw that the markets recovered by the end of the (Thursday). We were down some 800 points on the Dow. Actually ended up positive at the end of the day. I think the takeaway from there is that's demonstrating how confused the market is with all of these items to be concerned about."
Buchanan says other factors such as inflation, and supply issues are also affecting the markets.
"The market heard the list of sanctions that the United States and our allies are prepared to put on Russia did calm nerves associated with that," he said. "But again, I think the volatility does reflect a stack of worries, things that we are concerned about as investors. Again, that's inflation, the supply chain issues that we've seen, and kind of a growing sentiment that economic growth might be a little light compared to years that we've just come out of.
He says the indexes are down during the first two months of the year, but that came after a decade of record growth.
"We have so much information in so many ways as an investor," Buchanan said. "And we've got to remind ourselves that the last couple of weeks or just that a couple of weeks where investors struggled. And, you know, my thoughts on this is, if this conflict continues to escalate to companies that make consumer staples like toilet paper, toothpaste and razor blades, will that impact their sales? We don't think so. So building a portfolio that's invested in those types of companies is certainly a premise that we believe in. The short-term impacts, although very negative, sometimes can consume our emotions pretty heavily right? And we, as an office, are certainly paying attention to this issue. But there's other things to be concerned about as well and counting on level heads to make sure that this was parked in its role is one part of the puzzle as we look at how this economy continues to grow."
