NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock investors will start the week on edge as markets worldwide react to the referendum that appears to back Russia's claim to Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, even if the vote result is not internationally recognized. U.S. stocks closed on Friday with their largest weekly drop in the last seven weeks as the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War continues to unfold. Markets were also haunted by concerns over a slowdown in China's economy. Dozens of Russians involved in Moscow's gradual takeover of Crimea face U.S. and European Union travel bans and asset freezes on Monday. Russian state media quoted an exit poll as saying 93 percent of voters supported union with Russia. The White House rejected the referendum and called Russia's actions "dangerous and destabilizing." "There's an open question as to who suffers most," said Sam Wardwell, investment strategist at Pioneer Investments in Boston, about the planned economic sanctions. "The EU is dependent on Russian natural gas; it's an economic mutually assured destruction." Last week's record decline in foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries has led some to speculate that Russia has been cutting its dollar reserves ahead of possible sanctions from the West. "It will be harder to make a new high (on the S&P 500) with these global and geopolitical effects overhanging," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey. "I don't know if these warnings signs result in dire results, but they are certainly to be considered when making a macro bet." The S&P 500 closed last week down 2 percent after hitting a record close on March 7. The decline in U.S. stocks was smaller than in other major markets but investors have been protecting their bets with other instruments. The CBOE Volatility index VIX jumped near 10 percent to 17.82 on Friday, its highest level since early February, as investors were willing to pay more for protection against a drop in the S&P 500. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/markets-edge-crimea-votes-quit-194701424.html
You don't. And no one else does either. It's better for most to buy a little each week or month than dump it all in at once anyway.
And what do you think would be a good investment, even if it's been over a week? What becomes great in these times?
I see this affecting oil prices greatly, what with Russia planning to increase rates in the EU possibly. This could make things even edgier.
Ouch! travel bans and asset freezes, could it get much worse than this, i beg to ask?...still wondering how one can gauge that it could be a good day to buy, why not sell or observe before diving in with much force...whatever happened to stealth caution?
You cannot be for certain when a good day to buy is, Ursell. All you can do is research. Then plan for the best.
I really wonder how this will affect Russia's relations with the rest of Europe. Already they're upsetting a lot of world leaders.
Crimea leaving Ukraine is a good move towards world stability, in my opinion. It just means that the pro-Russians inside Ukraine will have a peninsular to migrate to. And once the ties have been severed, Ukraine should immiediatly step up border patrols and tighten immigration from Crimea to prevent Putin from slipping his supporters into Ukraine. So there'll only be an outflow of Russian influence from Ukraine to Crimea, weakening Russia's claims to the rest of Ukraine, freeing Ukraine from further Russian influence. I'm sure the western blocs will be agreeable to this too since they'll get to keep the rest of Ukraine without further conflict.
