itstargetnews
JERUSALEM – FEBRUARY 28: People seek refuge after Iran launches missiles and drones into Israel following US-Israeli attacks on February 28, 2026.
Mustafa Alkaruf | Anadolu | Getty Images
The United States and Israel launched The most aggressive attack ever An Iranian target last weekend killed the Islamic State’s longtime leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Tehran retaliated with airstrikes across the Middle East, plunging the region into a widening conflict.
We understand that investors should prepare for the impact after the market opens over the weekend.
Iran’s supreme leader killed
Iranian official media announced Khamenei died early Sunday.
Trump took the biggest foreign policy gamble of his presidency ahead of the November midterm elections. called killing “This is the greatest opportunity the Iranian people have to take back their country.”
Trump also warned on “The Truth Society” that “violent and precise bombing will continue for a week, non-stop, or as long as necessary to achieve our goals of peace in the Middle East and around the world!”
The president said Saturday that the militant strike aimed at ending Decades-long threat from Iran and ensure that it cannot develop nuclear weapons.
Launch missiles into Gulf countries
Iran Retaliating with an unprecedented wave of strikes Across the Middle East, several nearby countries with U.S. military bases were targeted, as well as Israel.
In Israel, where sirens and mobile phone warnings sent people rushing to bomb shelters, Iran launched a series of missiles, most of which were intercepted.
Explosions were reported in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and videos showed people fleeing the smoke-filled tunnels of Dubai International Airport.
Drone strikes caused damage and injuries to Dubai International Airport and Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously stated in a statement that statement It said on Saturday that the country would respond “without hesitation” to a U.S.-led attack. In addition, the spokesperson of the Iranian Armed Forces It is said “We will teach Israel and the United States a lesson they have never experienced in their history,” the warning said.
Meanwhile, Trump said in a Sunday Truth Society post Warns Tehran against further retaliatory actionsThe threat stated that if Iran continues to launch attacks, it will “hit them with unprecedented force.”
market hedging
Investors are bracing for risk-off trades once markets reopen after the weekend, anticipating gains in so-called safe-haven assets such as the dollar and gold, while stocks may pull back.
On Hyperliquid, a cryptocurrency exchange that allows 24/7 trading, oil-linked perpetual swap futures rose nearly 5% to $71.7 a barrel, while gold futures rose about 1.2% to $5,334 a troy ounce, providing some indication of how the market might react.
Bitcoin fluctuated for several hours after Saturday’s explosion, before recovering some of its losses and ending the day up 1.8% at $66,725. The cryptocurrency fell to $66,325 as of 4:48 a.m. ET on Sunday.
Oil trends
Oil market players pay close attention watch the conflict, This could lead to a serious shock to Middle East oil supplies.
Bob McNally, a former White House energy adviser to former President George W. Bush, predicted that crude oil futures prices could rise by $5 to $7 a barrel when the market opens at 6 p.m. Sunday if there are no signs of de-escalation.
Brent crude oil
Iran, OPEC’s fourth-largest oil producer, could threaten to make the Strait of Hormuz – the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea – unsafe for commercial traffic. McNally said this could cause oil prices to surge above $100 a barrel.
In 2025, the volume of oil flowing through the strait will exceed 14 million barrels per day, accounting for one-third of the world’s total seaborne crude oil exports. About three-quarters of that oil is shipped to China, India, Japan and South Korea. China is the world’s second-largest economy and half of its crude oil imports come through the strait.
Investors reassess risks
A key question for the market is what happens next.
Eric Robertson, global head of research at Standard Chartered Bank, said in a report that investors have underestimated geopolitical risks.
The dollar has weakened only slightly so far this year, he said, but the dispersion beneath the surface says it all: Commodity-linked currencies are outperforming, suggesting markets are paying for exposure to scarce resources and terms-of-trade winners.
Ben Emons of FedWatch Advisors believes a leadership strike in Tehran would increase the tail risk of regime change and leave an uncertain outcome. If a regime collapse removes the threat of an oil blockade or nuclear escalation, markets could swing between easing risk aversion and continued risk aversion if conflict persists and supply disruptions intensify, he said.
Direct pressure points can be energy. Analysts say a continued surge in crude prices will quickly ripple through inflation expectations and hit Asia’s oil-importing economies hardest.
As trading resumes, oil prices and the U.S. dollar’s behavior against Asian currencies will be the first real signals of the severity of this shock.
Travel chaos
airline Hundreds of flights canceled Due to the closed airspace in large areas of the Middle East, dozens of aircraft also changed their routes mid-flight. Some services are suspended until at least the end of next week.
Travel chaos spreads to Brazil and Australia. The airspace closure also forced airlines to cancel flights that normally pass through the area.
More than 1,800 flights to and from the Middle Eastern country were canceled on Saturday, and a further 1,400 flights to and from the region were canceled on Sunday, according to aviation data company Cirium.
Qatar Airways said it would temporarily halt all flights, while Dubai-based Emirates said services at Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest airports, had been halted.
— CNBC’s Spriha Srivastava, Spencer Kimball, Pippa Stevens and Leslie Josephs contributed to this story.
