The terrorist-branded Islamist movement Hamas’ bloody attacks in southern Israel this weekend, and the subsequent Israeli declaration of war, are making the markets jittery.
The events create concern about a regional spread of the fighting. Among other things, they also affect oil prices and raise fears that central banks around the world will raise even more and strike with the interest rate hammer if inflation rises again.
The major European stock exchanges closed with rates on the minus side.
But in New York, both the Dow Jones industrial index and the S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 0.4 percent.