#financial markets

As a result of escalating tensions in the Middle East, crude oil prices have again leapt, and the commodity markets are in their familiar state of torpor – at the centre of a maelstrom of buying and selling, with nervous investors fretting over any further deterioration in supply from the most strategic waterway for oil in the world. It is a predictably sudden and volatile market reaction to the unfolding of an almost inevitably volatile situation in a globally crucial area – a market that is inextricably entwined with the equally critical commodity markets that dominate such huge tracts of the global economy. For years energy markets have been known to be volatile in response to geopolitical events. Now, however, retail traders are just as aware of price shocks as institutional traders, and with the increasing number of online trading platforms covering an ever-widening range of trading products, retail traders are more directly connected to the markets. When markets are volatile, a large number of trading tools spring into action. However, movements in oil prices can have an impact on currency markets. An increase in oil prices can strengthen the currencies of oil-producing countries, and changes in oil prices can also influence investor perceptions of inflation, which in turn can affect stock markets. Read more in our articles including "How the new oil shock is pushing more users toward real-time trading platforms" and "CIMB Bank offers PHP 10,000 assistance to customers who have contracted the COVID-19 virus".