It's Like Russia-Ukraine Never Happened
Business Insider/Matthew Boesler, Thinkorswim
This chart shows S&P 500 futures from last Thursday to this morning.
On Friday, futures closed at 1860.75, and this morning, as the horizontal red line shows, they are above that level, trading north of 1861.
In other words, from the U.S. equity market's perspective, it's like the escalation of military tensions on the border between Russia and Ukraine this weekend never even happened.
This morning, two big headlines propelled futures higher.
The first one crossed the wires around 1 AM ET: Moscow news agency Interfax reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops engaged in a military drill in western Russia back to their bases.
The Russian ruble instantly strengthened. Russian stock markets opened at the same time and immediately headed higher.
The effect on S&P 500 futures is circled on the chart (the bigger of the two red circles).
The second headline crossed around 5:45 AM ET, when Putin began delivering a press conference on the conflict. The ruble strengthened and Russian stocks got another boost as he spoke.
The effect on S&P 500 futures is circled on the chart as well (the smaller of the two red circles).
For now, U.S. stocks are signaling that geopolitical concerns may have little lasting effect.