Like all stock markets, the local stock market hates uncertainty and that’s what Vladimir Putin has delivered with his invasion of Ukraine. And the financial backwash of his selfish intentions has been to hurt stocks, such as Qantas, which lost 7.93% yesterday, but it has helped the likes of Woodside Petroleum, which gained 9.52% yesterday.

Overall though, the unanswered questions that Putin has created mean most stocks are losers out of this curveball crisis for investors and speculators alike.

Of course, speculators tend to be short-term players and some of those would’ve taken our advice on my Switzer Investing TV show and gone long on Woodside (WPL) a week or so ago.

I actually have been tipping it as a winner for 2022 because I was expecting a big economic recovery year which would’ve meant more demand for fuel for trains, planes and automobiles! (And wasn’t that a great movie?)

Woodside (WPL)

This year-to-date chart shows WPL is up 51.79%, but between March 2020 and September 2021 this stock hovered between $16 and $21 over that time.

Meanwhile, Qantas has been a stock on the up since the 2020 Coronavirus crash of the stock market and the closure of economies KO’d its share price, as the chart below shows.

Qantas (QAN)

And even though it lost over 7% yesterday ­($4.92 to $4.53) as people fear travelling to Europe and the price of oil is over $US120 barrel, since March 2020 its share price has gone from $2.36 to $4.53. Before Putin’s pathetic play, its share price was $5.40, so it has lost 16% since mid-February.

However, the airline’s share price is up 92% since 20 March 2020, which shows that the market believes this company’s stock price will fly higher over time. It just needs no Putin-like disturbances/wars, and normalcy to return to international travel.

The patient long-term investor, who bought Qantas at $2.36, has more money in their pocket than what has been lost because of the Ukraine war. This chart of Brent Crude shows why a big user of oil (such as Qantas is) has lost some of its stock price value.

Brent crude oil

Over the past year, the price has gone from $US68 a barrel to $US128 a barrel yesterday! That’s an 88% rise. And since December, the rise has been over 80%!

The bottom line is that the length of this war will determine how long oil prices stay high and how long Qantas and other travel stocks are under pressure, but I’m sure they won’t fall like they did when the world closed because of the pandemic.

If peace is struck or the West accepts Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, or something else comes along to end hostilities, the stock market will rebound and shares like Qantas will soar. You just have to be patient.

The same applies to the entire stock market, which I expect to recover and go higher over the year or so ahead. But this isn’t just me, Goldman Sachs' Peter Oppenheimer, the company’s Chief Global Strategist, thinks “A lot of bad news is priced in and there’s room for medium-term returns”.

That’s market-speak for: expect stocks to rebound after these war fears and the oil price fall.