The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including warning residents in two southern Beirut neighborhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of an imminent operation.
Oil prices extended gains and equities fell on Tuesday as investors kept tabs on the Middle East as the United States and Israel continued to bombard Iran, while Tehran launched further strikes on neighbours.
An attack by two drones early Tuesday on the US embassy in Riyadh sparked a small fire, a Saudi defense ministry spokesman said in a statement, while Iran pressed on with retaliatory strikes across the Gulf.
The Middle East conflict triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran won't be "an endless war," but could take "time," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Monday. Speaking to Fox News, Netanyahu also claimed Israel and the United States had to act because Iran had been building new nuclear weapon sites that would have been impossible to attack within months.
A selloff in stocks deepened on Tuesday, and the dollar strengthened as investors considered the implications of US and Israeli strikes on Iran on energy prices and the global economy.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.5% to extend losses for a second day, led by a drop of as much as 4.1% in Korean shares. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slumped 2.3%, and S&P 500 e-mini futures were down 0.6%.
The US will take action to mitigate rising energy prices due to a spike in the price of oil caused by the Iran conflict, Secretary of State Rubio said on Monday. Speaking to reporters at Capitol Hill, Rubio said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright would announce the plans on Tuesday.“Starting tomorrow, you will see us rolling out those phases to try to mitigate against that... We anticipated this could be an issue,” Rubio said.
To be updated:
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