What the Invasion of Ukraine Means for European Stocks

Following weeks of speculation, the news that Russia has officially invaded Ukraine comes as only a semishock for equity markets. Ahead of the attack, the European Union, or EU, approved a range of sanctions against Russia, described as the “harshest ever,” to no real effect in terms of deterrence. For markets generally, we are now in a period of high uncertainty with very limited visibility of how the situation will play out. For the most part, our European coverage list lacks material exposure to Russia or Ukrainian assets, but any prolonged conflict here could have further knock-on effects from a macroeconomic perspective.