Global markets head for third weekly loss as oil shock deepens

Three weeks of losses. That is where global equities are headed, marking the longest losing streak in a year, as the war between Israel and Iran continues to rewrite the rules of energy markets and force central banks into corners they spent years trying to avoid. The MSCI All Country World Index is down0.4% for the week, and Friday's near-flat session offered no real comfort — just the nervous stillness of markets bracing for a weekend they cannot control.

Oil pulls back, but nobody is celebrating

Brent crude slipped from its highest closing level since July 2022, settling around $108 a barrel. On the surface, that sounds like relief. It is not. Attacks on energy infrastructure across the Middle East — including a drone strike that forced Kuwait to shut multiple units at the Al Ahmadi refinery on Friday, and an Iranian-linked fire at a storage facility in Bahrain — are the kind of events that do not simply vanish from a trader's risk calculus by Monday morning.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will no longer target energy infrastructure, and that the war will end