Finance
Trading Day: Oil, Yields, Uncertainty Surge
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 2, 2026
4 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 2, 2026
4 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleOil and LNG prices surged amid geopolitical instability and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, while investors dumped bonds and global equities, though Wall Street showed resilience. Safe-haven fears fueled dollar strength, and inflation worries pressured Treasuries.
ORLANDO, Florida, March 2 (Reuters) - Oil and gas prices clocked their biggest rise in years, while bonds and most stock markets fell on Monday, after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran over the weekend triggered waves of volatility across world markets. The big - and surprising - exception was Wall Street.
In my column today I look at the dilemma facing Treasuries investors - do they buy bonds on rising geopolitical instability and the hit to growth from surging oil prices, or sell on inflation fears? So far, inflation worries appear to be the driving force.
If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today.
Supply disruption fears send oil and other energy prices soaring. Oil eases off earlier highs but still ends the trading day up 6%, pushing the year-on-year price change firmly into positive territory. This is a significant change for inflation models.
The biggest rise was in liquefied natural gas, after Qatar said it has halted production. Benchmark European LNG rocketed more than 50% before trimming those gains to 40%, still the biggest one-day rise since Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago.
Given the slump in world stocks, spike in market volatility and surge in geopolitical risk, one might have expected the Swiss franc to appreciate on Monday. After all, it is the world's safest "safe haven" currency, right?
But the franc tumbled more than 1% against the dollar, its biggest fall since May, fueling speculation the SNB intervened to counter the flood of safe-haven buying. For its part, the SNB said in a statement it was prepared to do just that in order to prevent "excessive" appreciation of the franc. The signs are, it did.
After Asian and European stocks fell 1-3% on Monday, Wall Street opened lower too. But it soon recovered, and ended the day narrowly mixed - the Dow dipped 0.15%, the S&P 500 added 0.04%, while the Nasdaq climbed 0.4% and the Russell 2000 small caps index jumped 0.9%.
Given the severity of events in the Middle East, and their impact on energy prices and bond yields, that's remarkable. It could even be argued that the 1-3% declines in Asia and Europe were muted moves. But closing higher? Let's see how the rest of the week pans out.
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Nia Williams)
Oil and gas prices jumped due to increased geopolitical instability following a U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, raising fears about supply disruptions.
U.S. bond yields leaped as investors balanced buying for safety against selling due to inflation fears, with inflation concerns dominating market moves.
Most Asian and European stock indices fell 1-3%, while U.S. indices like the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 remained resilient and finished higher.
The Swiss franc declined over 1% as the Swiss National Bank indicated willingness to intervene and counter excessive currency appreciation.
Energy and tech sectors outperformed in the U.S., with companies like Marathon Petroleum up 6%, while Norwegian Cruise Line and AES saw sharp declines.
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