There is more to market volatility than Ukraine

IT is tempting to pin the recent volatility in markets only on the fluidity of the Russia-Ukraine situation.

After all, every day we seem to get competing indications of a stand-off that confronts Europe with the highest possibility of an armed conflict with Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

After an initial flurry of activity, markets settled into mostly trading the conflict within a range bounded by the hope of an eventual diplomatic resolution and the more protracted period of "no peace and no war".