Global Markets Face New Geopolitical Risk, View Oil as Guide

  • Markets already unnerved by elevated rates, hawkish Fed
  • Middle East crises tend to push up oil, hurt stocks: Yardeni

A tanker sails in the Arabian Sea.

Photographer: Sebastien Berger/AFP/Getty Images

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Global financial markets already rattled by elevated interest rates now face a fresh dose of geopolitical uncertainty following Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.

Saturday’s strike and Israel’s subsequent declaration of war threaten to unnerve markets, while a jump in crude oil from the start of Asian trade adds to concern about elevated inflation.