Israeli strikes in Iran: Oil and gold prices jump, stocks fall

"There are fears that the conflict could escalate and lead to disruptions in oil supplies," experts said, following Israel's strikes on Iranian military sites.

Oil, gold, interest rates, stocks: nothing escapes the geopolitical context. Financial markets are in turmoil following Israel's bombing of military and nuclear sites in Iran on Friday, June 13.

After temporarily surging more than 12% overnight, the price of a barrel of North American WTI oil rose 7.26% to $72.98. A barrel of North Sea Brent crude rose 7.02% to $74.23. "There are fears that the conflict could escalate and cause disruptions in oil supplies, given that a third of the world's supply (...) comes from the Middle East," said Carsten Fritsch and Barbara Lambrecht of Commerzbank.

In this context, investors are seeking safe havens. The first of these, gold, rose 1.43% to $3,434 per ounce (31.1 grams), very close to its last record of $3,500 per ounce reached last April. On the stock market, the stock markets took a hit: on Wall Street, the Dow Jones fell 1.79%, the Nasdaq index lost 1.30%, and the broader S&P 500 index dropped 1.13%. On the Old Continent, Paris fell 1.04%, Frankfurt 1.07%, and Milan 1.28%. London lost 0.39%. Investors are partly taking a "wait-and-see approach to what will happen over the weekend because the situation is obviously very unstable," especially since "stock markets are not really effective at assessing geopolitical risk ," Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers told AFP.