This year, markets are going through non-typical August. Instead of a traditionally quiet month where a poorly volatile side trend prevails, investors got a month full of events that, most likely, will have far-reaching consequences for global markets.

Last week, tension escalated when several western politicians made statements about the growing threat of an open armed attack of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. At the end of the previous week, the Russian Government added some more fuel to the fire through its decision to institute restrictions on imports of livestock-breeding and plant-growing products from the European Union and a number of other countries. The restrictions imposed can seriously affect the EU’s economy, since Russia is an important consumer of its products. The Russian RTS Index lost 3.5% over the previous week. Economists voiced forecasts that the Russian economy would enter recession by the end of the current year.

Financial markets survey 11.08.2014