Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as oil rallies over 3% while shares in airlines fall as some flights to Tel Aviv are suspended
- Israel-Hamas war: what has happened and what has caused the conflict?
Hungarian airline Wizz Air has joined the ranks of airlines cancelling flights to and from Tel Aviv.
Wizz says flights are on hold until further notice.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation closely and are in touch with the relevant authorities.”
Markets will spend a fair amount of time in the early part of this week trying to understand the implications of the most serious cross-border attack on Israel in decades early on Saturday morning. It was 50 years ago on Friday that the Yom Kippur War started after a surprise attack on Israel so there are some parallels. This war cast a shadow over the rest of the 1970s so although we’re a long way from that, it’s a reminder that geopolitical risk is elevated at the moment with the Ukraine conflict, the US/China tensions and now those resurfacing in the Middle East. How Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the US get drawn into this will be key.
Geopolitical risk doesn’t tend to linger long in markets but there are many second order impacts that could come through in the weeks, months and years ahead from this weekends’ developments.
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