Shipping costs have increased by more than 10 percent in the past month due to the US-Israel war on Iran. The 60-day waiver for the Jones Act aimed to lower energy costs but has had little impact on oil prices, which continue to rise amid the ongoing conflict.
The economics are hard to ignore. Shooting down a drone with AeroVironment's LOCUST laser system costs less than $10, using just two to five seconds of laser energy. Compare that to the interceptor missiles currently used against Iranian drone swarms, which cost orders of magnitude more and are in short supply across allied arsenals.
"The big recent changes are the war causing spikes in diesel, fertilizer, and chemical prices," Jeffrey Dorfman explained, highlighting the direct impact of the conflict on agricultural costs.
Major indices, including the Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average, all recorded gains, with the Nasdaq delivering its strongest weekly performance since November.
The conflict has driven up the price of oil and natural gas; damaged oil refineries, tanker terminals and other energy infrastructure; disrupted shipments of fertiliser that the world's farmers depend on; and damaged the confidence of businesses and consumers.
Weak performance in several service sectors offset gains in retail and wholesale trade, reinforcing concerns about the pace of economic recovery. Japan relies heavily on oil imports from the Middle East, making it particularly sensitive to disruptions in the region.
Kantar's codebase was legacy old. The kind of technical debt that isn't a line item on a sprint board but a structural reality that shapes every decision the company makes. Rebuilding the architecture to support what I'd designed would have cost more than the organization was willing to invest, regardless of the Barilla deal sitting on the table.
The International Energy Agency has advised member countries to take emergency measures to curb oil demand, following military strikes on Iran that have triggered significant supply disruptions.
When you work in the operating world, you are in the weeds of your business. For example, at SoFi I knew all the nuances of different types of student loan forbearance programs and at Brex I knew the minutiae of the Mastercard transaction chargeback rules. This contrasts with my experience as a private equity investor where I look at purchasing a business ranging from a chain of laundromats to Ancestry.com within the same month.
Since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, Tehran has launched a wave of ballistic missiles targeting Israel, US military bases, oil depots and other infrastructure across the Gulf region. Iranian attacks on several vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz have also dramatically reduced traffic in the narrow channel, through which about 20 percent of global oil and gas supplies transit.
The world has flipped from a scarcity crisis to a crisis of drowning in abundance. We have entered the era of the Super Glut -a structural deluge where we are extracting hydrocarbons faster than the global economy can burn them. According to the IEA's January 2026 report, global oil supply is projected to surge by 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd), reaching a definitive record of 108.7 million bpd. This is not a temporary surge; it is a permanent shift in market dynamics.
This is not new news, of course, but many in the industry seem to be finally waking up to the hard truth that data-driven media buying, as we know it today, is severely under threat and has to change. Cookies power everything we do, from humble frequency capping through to complex multi-touch attribution models, ad personalisation and audience segmentation. They underpin most of the gains we've made in performance advertising, as well as brand advertising, over the past decade.
This is completely normal price action, and it does mean that people still think of the U.S. dollar as a safe haven. Investors are selling holdings in overseas stocks and assets in Europe and Asia, and they're cashing out into dollars. That dynamic increased demand for the greenback, pushing up its value against other currencies.
I have not touched a paper note for months. I don't even have money to pay for a taxi. Now we walk a lot, for long distances. Palestinians in Gaza use the Israeli currency, the shekel, in their daily transactions, and depend on Israel to supply banks with new banknotes and coins.
