Oil prices soared and stocks sank Friday after Israel launched strikes on Iran, prompting retaliation from Tehran and stoking fears of a full-blown war.
Oil futures rocketed more than 13 percent at one point before coming back to gains nearer seven percent, reigniting worries about a renewed spike to inflation.
After a down day in Europe and Asia, Wall Street indices spent the entire day in the red before finishing the day down more than one percent.
“After having a pretty solid run in May and the first part of June, markets found an excuse to take some profits,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist of B. Riley Wealth.
Shares in major airlines tumbled after flights around the Middle East were suspended.
The dollar climbed higher, while gold — viewed as a safe haven investment — was close to its record high of above $3,500 an ounce set in April, having added around 30 percent since the start of the year.
The drop in equities and rise in safe-haven assets “all go to show just how fragile sentiment remains in the face of major geopolitical events,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at financial services provider Trade Nation.
“The question now is whether investors view this flare-up as a relatively contained incident within the longstanding animosity between Israel and Iran, or if this is the spark that ignites a conflagration across the Middle East and then beyond?”
On Friday, Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel in a counter-strike just hours after the Israeli strikes targeting the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities and bases.
Air raid sirens and explosions rang out across Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the airways to issue a word of caution, saying he expected “several waves of Iranian attacks” in response.
Smoke could later be seen billowing above the skyscrapers in downtown Tel Aviv, according to an AFP journalist, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked dozens of targets in Israel.
While Friday was a decisively negative day for equities, analysts described the selling as orderly.
Investors “are paring back some risk, but this is hardly a panicky sell-off,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.
The market is partially in “a wait and see approach to what happens over the weekend because it’s obviously a very fluid volatile situation,” Sosnick added.
But further escalation would add more upward pressure to oil prices.
Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, said: “The big fear for investors is that an escalation to the tensions will not only raise the risk of a prolonged conflict, but it could disrupt Iranian oil production.”
Rising oil prices have “broader implications,” Ryan said, noting that they “could both weigh on the global growth outlook and keep inflationary pressures higher for longer.”
This would complicate the decision-making of major central banks, which will have to decide between raising interest rates to curb inflation or cutting them to stimulate economies.
Brent North Sea Crude: UP 7.0 percent at $74.23 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 7.3 percent at $72.98 per barrel
New York – Dow: DOWN 1.8 percent at 42,197.79 (close)
New York – S&P 500: DOWN 1.1 percent at 5,976.97 (close)
New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.3 percent at 19,406.83 (close)
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,850.63 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.0 percent at 7,684.68 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.1 percent at 23,516.23 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 37,834.25 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.6 percent at 23,892.56 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.8 percent at 3,377.00 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1540 from $1.1584 on Thursday
