The first years of this decade were dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which developed into one of the worst health crises since the Spanish Influenza that dealt considerable damage to the world population in the late 1910s and early 1920s. In 2022, vaccine drives in the developed world had already laid COVID-19 low for many citizens. On Thursday, February 24, 2022, the Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The move spurred the United States and many of its NATO allies to pursue aggressive sanctions and deliver considerable humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine.
Unfortunately, the Russia-Ukraine war is not the only geopolitical flashpoint that has escalated in the 2020s. Earlier this month, Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist militant group, sprung a series of coordinated attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel’s southern border. The attack resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, in a single day. Israel has moved quickly to take retaliatory action, but the political situation remains extremely fragile. There are hundreds of Israeli civilians kidnapped and strewn throughout Hamas territory. Worse, the U.S. and its allies have expressed concerns that further action could pull Hezbollah and even Iran into a wider war.
The S&P 500 had already started to succumb to volatility in the middle of September. This index rose in the immediate aftermath of the Israel-Hamas conflict but has since had a rough ending to October. However, oil stocks have performed well as a wider war could threaten global supply and spark price increases.
Investors would do well to monitor these ongoing events that will undoubtedly have an impact on the market in the months ahead.
