feb 28  welcome to the home for realtime coverage of markets brought to you by reuters reporters you can share your thoughts with us at marketsresearchthomsonreuterscom sticking to banks when looking 1 month ahead 0750 gmt going fullon european banks was a pretty consensus take at the beginning of the year but the market mayhem created by russias invasion of ukraine has forced strategists to reconsider all of their early 2022 trades we entered the year with the calls for style and sector rotation out of growth into value with our key sector tilts longs in financials and in commodities jp morgans strategy team wrote this morning the latest escalation in the ukrainerussia crisis is a clear challenge for the chunks of this positioning they admit the team nevertheless thinks that looking beyond the next few weeks the case for european banks and europe might still stand we believe that europe and banks should continue to be seen as fundamental ows on anything longer than 1 month horizon especially if commodity flows are not cut from russia they write more generally theres always a risk in moving too fast in reaction to geopolitical tensions they argue historically vast majority of military conflicts especially if localized did not tend to hurt investor confidence for too long and would end up as buying opportunities when the end of history ends 0653 gmt francis fukuyamas bestseller the end of history and the last man was published 30 years ago and popularised the idea that the triumph of liberal democracy would open a new era of global peace and prosperity after the cold war since then a long list of events and trends from the 911 attacks to the rise of populism has made that idea look somewhat outdated but russias invasion of ukraine probably constitutes the final nail in that narratives coffin on this last monday morning of february 2022 the future looks very different to what it did just a week ago short term financial markets are facing an extremely volatile situation worsened by the fact the 2022 outlooks sent by investments banks at the end of 2021 are now completely irrelevant the massive sanctions implemented by western allies notably the step to block certain russian banks from the swift payments system is sending oil prices above 100 a barrel read more one of the most spectacular effect of the sanctions was the rouble collapsing nearly 30 overnight with investors rushing to find safe havens in the dollar and gold while the euro fell a sharp 1 read more the urgency to park capital safely was also exposed through the 10year us treasury yield falling about 9 basis points to 189 still the current rally on safe government bonds tells little about how central banks will react to the crisis as much as surging energy prices lifting inflation further make the case to speed up monetary tightening the unavoidable hit on economic growth also needs to be addressed goldman sachs estimates the conflict could shave off as much as 04 of euro area gdp this year bets were on the us federal reserve and the european central bank to proceed more cautiously than previously expected have grown across equity markets european bourses are most exposed and futures show the continents blue chips opening down about 3 while in asia mscis index of regional stocks miap00000pus was roughly flat among major announcements over the weekend norways 13 trillion sovereign wealth fund said it would divest its russian assets and britains bp decided to exit the capital of russian giant rosnet rosnmm read more key developments that should provide more direction to markets on monday japans factory output hit by car production cuts ukraine crisis adds to risks read more ukraine european bourses set to plunge at the open 0602 gmt european stocks markets are set to plunge at the open with futures for the paneuropean blue chip stoxx 50 index and germanys dax currently losing 35 and 3 sanctions taken by western allies against russia have already had a major impact overnight on global financial markets with oil prices surging and the rouble collapsing 30 investors are rushing for safe havens with gold and the dollar in high demand while the euro is losing about 1 asian stock markets which are less exposed to the crisis are just slightly negative with mscis index of regional stocks lost 01 theres more tension surrounding us stocks markets futures for the sp 500 and the nasdaq are down 21 and 22