Gold, Oil Futures Surge, Asian Shares Fall Amid Rising Middle East Tensions

The effect of the U.S. airstrikes at the Baghdad Airport that killed prominent Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani continued to be seen on financial assets on Monday as Iran's threat to retaliate looms.

Commodities

Oil futures prices continued to surge Monday as the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution expelling U.S troops from the country and Iran said it wouldn't abide by any nuclear enrichment restrictions going forward.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude prices were up 2.03% up at $64.34 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude futures were up 2.29% at $70.17 at press time.

Gold futures surged as investors searched for security in the traditional safe haven.

They traded 1.73% higher at $1,579.45 an ounce at press time, reaching as high as $1,588.65 earlier in the day — the highest level since 2013.

Silver was up 1.6% at $18.442.

Asian Stock Market

The Asian stock markets continued to be negatively impacted by the latest escalation in the Middle East.

The indices in Japan, where markets were opening for the first time in 2020, dropped significantly.

Nikkei 225 traded 1.91% lower at 23,204.86, while TOPIX dropped 1.39%.

In China, the SSE Composite traded 0.28% lower at 3,075.28. Shenzhen Component was largely unchanged at 10,665.31.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 1.19% at 28,112.54. South Korea's KOSPI traded 1% lower at 2,154.64.