Market Commentary 02-24-2022

Daryl Eckman, President

I will talk about what is happening with Russia and Ukraine and how it impacts the economy and markets.

I want to say that I don't mean to sound disrespectful. I very much understand that war is horrific, but we have to keep our composure when evaluating the portfolios. Our focus is how this will impact the portfolios we manage.

If you look at history, during these periods of time, there is an initial panic and pull back. People want to take money out of the stock market. In the future, people then return those funds to the market. In times of conflict, if you zoom out, those have been good buying opportunities.

Our plan is to do some small buying. We don't view this as a massive buying opportunity. The expectation is that the conflict with Russia and Ukraine will have longer term impact and we want to be careful with the portfolios.

It's hard to predict what Vladimir Putin wants to do. Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, and we are not going to try and make some big proclamation because it would be guessing.

Historically, war has been good for markets. Governments tend to put aside differences and work together to spend money on items like technology.

We are keeping track of what's going on. We will be reaching out more often than usual as this plays out. If you are having anxiety, give us a call. We can go much more in-depth as things unfold.