Filenews 19 April 2024
In the days following last weekend's attack in which Iran struck Israeli targets, Tehran tried to downplay the incident by saying it was a "one-off attack."
Iranian officials were announcing they were ready to de-escalate tensions – however, the latest developments are radically changing the scene and now with Israel's attack on Iran, time is counting down and the risk of a full-scale conflict involving other countries – including the US – is now visible.
Markets reacted immediately to reports of raids on Iran and oil soared 3% above $90 a barrel, though it quickly fell slightly, with Brent at $89.32. and WTI at $84.92/barrel.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index led the losses in Asia, falling 3.3%, while the broader Topix index fell 2.78%, along with declines in most other major Asian markets.
Stocks and risk assets fell, while safe havens such as gold and Japanese yen strengthened.
Gold hit an all-time high, the Japanese yen also strengthened, while bitcoin plunged. U.S. stock futures fell more than 1%.
South Korea's Kospi fell 2.83%, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 3.25%
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.59%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.49%, while mainland China's CSI 300 fell 0.68%.
Gold sets new record
Safe havens have increased following unconfirmed reports of explosions in Iran, with the Fars news agency reporting that explosions were heard near the airport in the country's central city of Isfahan.
Spot gold prices jumped to a new all-time high of $2,411.09 an ounce, while the yen strengthened 0.45% to $153.93 against the U.S. dollar.
Bitcoin prices fell 1.44% to $60,186, according to Coin Metrics data.
Plunge in US futures
Futures for the Dow Jones fell 430 points, or 1.15%. S&P 500 futures lost nearly 1.34% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.62%. The S&P 500 is heading for its worst week in six months. The index has fallen for five straight sessions, bringing the week's losses to 2.2%. It will be the third consecutive negative week of the large-cap benchmark and the week with the biggest losses since October 27, 2023. The S&P 500 is now 4.8% off its 52-week high.
The market's decline is largely due to moderate expectations of a rate cut soon. Economists and strategists now see the Fed waiting until at least September to cut rates and are increasingly flirting with the possibility of no cuts at all this year.
