The globe is currently experiencing a rise in violence and instability as North Korea and Iran both pose nuclear threats and as Hamas fighters carry out murderous attacks on Israeli civilians. These conflicts and standoffs have worldwide repercussions for peace and security as well as the economy and stock markets around the world. For instance, the U.S. spent an estimated $8 trillion on post-9/11 wars in fiscal year 2022, a sizeable portion of GDP and a factor in the expansion of some industries.
But how do wars generally impact the economy and financial markets? Only time will tell, but security experts point out that previous wars did not have a long-term negative impact on U.S. stocks. This time, how will the markets respond?
Markets often detest uncertainty, which is something that war frequently brings. A sudden sell-off in equities may occur in response to the start of or threat of war. Investors may also turn to traditional safe assets like gold, bonds, or currencies that are seen as safe havens during this time. However unfavourable the immediate response, stock markets have proven resilient over time. In fact, individuals frequently make a full recovery as soon as the situation settles or as the extent of the disagreement becomes apparent.
According to LPL Financial analysis, stocks have mostly weathered previous global wars. As serious as this escalation is, John Lynch, a former chief investment strategist at LPL Financial, said of the January 2020 American airstrike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, "Previous experiences have indicated it may be unlikely to have a material impact on U.S. economic fundamentals or corporate profits." "We would not be sellers of stocks into weakness related to this event, given stocks have weathered heightened geopolitical tensions in the past."
According to history, times of uncertainty like this one frequently cause equities to decline the most. When examining American military conflicts following World War II in 2015, researchers at the Swiss Finance Institute discovered that while stock values tend to rise before a war, they tend to fall when one actually breaks out. The outbreak of war does, however, cause stock prices to fall when a war breaks out unexpectedly. They dubbed this phenomena "the war puzzle" and claimed there was no conclusive explanation for why markets soar when a war breaks out after a prelude.