US forces eliminated multiple Iranian naval vessels, March 10, including 16 minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz. The footage was released amid fears that Iran may seek to mine the strait in retaliation for a joint US-Israeli airstrike campaign that began on February 28.
A friend remarked to me over the weekend about the apocalyptic scenes of fire raging in Tehran. The strike on an oil depot has sent plumes of smoke across Iran's capital. An environmental catastrophe is unfolding, with reports of rain turning black and increasing respiratory problems.
We anticipated this could be an issue. He didn't offer details but said it's designed to 'mitigate against' the price impact. The U.S. does not have immediate plans to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Bloomberg reports. But ING analysts said in a note: 'The longer the Middle East disruptions last, the more likely we are to see coordinated emergency releases from several countries.'
Global markets are nearing the year-end with striking contrasts across major asset classes, shaped by shifting rate expectations, geopolitical uncertainty, and uneven economic momentum. Nowhere was this divergence more evident than in the performance of commodities, oil, and global equities. Gold led with a gain of more than 60%, its strongest annual advance in over a decade, while silver outperformed even that, surging nearly 100% over the year. Both precious metals benefited from expectations of global monetary easing, persistent geopolitical tensions,
