\u200b\u200b\u200b\u2018Back to the Stone Age\u2019<\/p>\n
\u200bLast night\u2019s speech\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0sound like a president that was keen to end the war swiftly.\u00a0Instead\u00a0it looks like there are another 2-3 weeks of bombing to come, and ground troops continue to arrive in the Middle East. Talk of a ceasefire seems premature, and while some negotiations\u00a0appear to be\u00a0going on, the Straits of Hormuz remain closed.<\/p>\n
\u200bTrump\u2019s goals to end the war remain\u00a0unclear, and\u00a0keep changing. This leaves markets confused, but every day that the Straits\u00a0remain\u00a0closed continues to pile the pressure on the global economy, boosting the prospects of higher and more sustained inflation, and a downturn in economic growth.<\/p>\n
\u200bLong weekend complicates the situation for investors\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200bUS markets face a three-day weekend, while UK investors have a four-day weekend ahead of them. Since the war in the Middle East began, markets have weakened on Thursdays and Fridays. The S&P 500 has gained over the first three days of the week since the war\u00a0began, but\u00a0has then posted losses of 9% on the final two days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200bThis long weekend and the potential for more military action may well mean that the selling is brought forward into Thursday\u2019s session. Trump\u2019s warning about bombing Iran to the \u2018Stone Age\u2019 suggests a more intense period of operations ahead, particularly if no deal is forthcoming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200bOil prices to keep rising<\/p>\n
\u200bAnother few weeks of conflict intensifies the energy crisis hitting the global economy. It means more disruption from a lack of oil supplies, and a greater shutdown of energy infrastructure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200bOil prices moved higher after the US president\u2019s speech, with Brent back above $100. Reports of more shortages will continue to push the price higher, amplifying the duration and\u00a0magnitude\u00a0of the crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200bNo resolution in sight<\/p>\n
\u200bUltimately, markets\u00a0are still awaiting an actual ceasefire that reopens the Straits of Hormuz. But Iran refuses to play ball with the US. This raises the risk that Washington will escalate to bring Iran to the table, and that could see more destruction across the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u200b\u200b\u200b\u2018Back to the Stone Age\u2019 \u200bLast night\u2019s speech\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0sound like a president that was keen to end the war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-371165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}