Oil, safe haven assets jump as Israel responds to Iran [Video]

Ipek Ozkardeskaya Swissquote Bank Ltd

Oil and gold jumped on rising geopolitical tensions after Israel struck targets in western Iran as a response to last weekend’s attacks. Brent crude traded above the $90pb before easing, US crude shortly trade past the $86pb level, wheat futures jumped 2%, gold rebounded to a near-record level and Swiss franc gained. We will likely see a further flight to safety before the weekly closing bell on fear of further escalation of tensions during the weekend. In other hot commodity news, cocoa futures jumped close to 10% yesterday to above $11’000 per ton, and a hedge manager called Pierre Andurand said that the shortages will push the price of a ton of cocoa to $20K.

Elsewhere, tech investors didn’t necessarily bought into TSM’s better-than-expected revenue and earnings compared to the same time last year. The S&P500 extended losses and Nasdaq 100 retreated to near its 100-DMA.
Netflix reported results after the closing bell yesterday and surprised with a third month of blowout subscriptions growth, but shares lost almost 5% in the afterhours trading as its Q2 revenue forecast failed to impress.

The US dollar gained on the back of strong US data and hawkish Fed comments and the US futures are in the negative this morning.

Author

Ipek Ozkardeskaya

Swissquote Bank Ltd

Ipek Ozkardeskaya began her financial career in 2010 in the structured products desk of the Swiss Banque Cantonale Vaudoise. She worked in HSBC Private Bank in Geneva in relation to high and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

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