I’d better change that to “Some Markets.”

While the U.S. markets are all jittery, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange actually ticked higher today. You wouldn’t know that for all the news, though.

Apparently, folks are worried that this three-day crisis between Israel and Hamas will disrupt oil supplies. Now, the oil exporting countries must be smiling at this… First, Israel and Palestine aren’t exporting oil anywhere, nor are they really close to any oil installations or major export routes.

The “threat” - if any - would come from other Arab nations protesting Israel’s bombing raids on the Gaza Strip. If Hezbollah gets involved and Israel goes back into Lebanon, or, heaven forbid, Syria, then Iran may have something nasty to say.

And that would certainly worry oil importers, as Iran could easily block the Straits of Hormuz, a major oil shipping corridor.

It hasn’t done it yet, though, and there have been other times when that was threatened. But there hasn’t been a peep from Iran, really. The International Herald Tribune reported this quote from Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “The horrible crime of the Zionist regime in Gaza has once again revealed the bloodthirsty face of this regime from disguise. But worse than this catastrophe is the encouraging silence of some Arab countries who claim to be Muslim.”

That’s not exactly a message of support for Palestine or Hamas.

But let’s get away from all this political hubbub for a second. Let’s look at what’s happening today on Middle Eastern stock exchanges.

Well, they’re mixed.

Tel Aviv: up 1.00%
Lebanon: even
Bahrain: down 0.47%
Saudi Arabia: up 0.51%
Jordan: down 0.72%
Oman: up 4.40%
Qatar: even
UAE: up 2.92%
Kuwait: down 2.40%

Some oil producing countries are up because oil prices are up. Kuwait is down because a major joint venture with Dow Chemical (DOW:NYSE) fell through. (By the way Dow is down nearly 19% on the news today.)

So is this conflict really affecting markets? Oil prices are, but they seem to be a little erratic today, spooked on the news and not enough traders to level out the volatility.

But markets don’t seem to be. One editor from Haaretz Daily Newspaper, Hagai Amit, wrote, “The bottom line, the stock market is used to rockets.”

No doubt.

I’ve written more on this situation for Taipan Insider readers tomorrow. Taipan Insider is an exclusive publication for subscribers to any of Taipan Publishing Group’s paid publications. If you’re a member of any of our services, you’ll receive part one of my research tomorrow.

Stay tuned…

Tags: Israel, Monopoly, Oil

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