The Russia-Ukraine Crisis Is Shaking Markets and Portfolios

Global markets typically rebound from war and disaster, and they are likely to do so this time, too. But Russia’s nuclear arsenal raises the risks beyond calculation.

Global markets usually weaken as wars approach, strengthen long before wars end and treat human calamity with breathtaking indifference.

That’s been a common historical pattern, anyway. And, with some important caveats, it seems to be playing out with Russia’s latest aggression toward Ukraine.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has already rattled stock, bond and commodity markets around the world. On Tuesday, U.S. stocks stumbled, with the S&P 500 falling 1 percent, into what Wall Street calls a correction — a decline of least 10 percent from the most recent high.