The two problems we’ve been focusing on this past week both had false endings.

Last week, we were told that Israel and Gaza were talking about a cease-fire. Now, news reports have more Israeli troops pushing into Gaza City. More than 90,000 people have left their homes, and an estmated 900 people have died in the conflict.

We were also expecting Russia to begin shipping natural gas supplies through Ukraine again this morning. That hasn’t happened either. Russia is now claiming that Ukraine is purposefully blocking supplies. Hundreds of thousands of people have been without gas for a full week.

So, what happens next? Some analysts are saying the Israeli-Palestine conflict could go on for some time. But some Gaza survivors have been without water for four days and the humanitarian situation is worsening by the minute.

Russia will only begin pumping large amounts of natural gas if EU monitors determine that Ukraine isn’t stealing any for domestic consumption. This test of the taps has put the “truce” back at square one.

Natural gas sold on the NYMEX has been dropping for the past five trading days. But natural gas sold on London’s ICE ended higher today. The spread between WTI oil and ICE Brent crude oil is about $6.50, most likely due to these two conflicts.

So Europe is paying more for oil and gas as Russia and Ukraine lock horns, and as Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip. We’re just starting to get into the middle of winter, too.

Yesterday, I told you Prague was going to hit an overnight low of 15 degreed F. Right now, it’s 9:00pm, and it feels like 12 degrees F.

In last Thursday’s Taipan Insider, I talked about the current dispute between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas supplies.

Since this latest row began, supplies to Eastern Europe have been nearly non-existant. And major Western European countries were starting to feel the pinch, too. Some countries were even forced to dip into reserves, this being the onset of the bitter winter season.

Now, Russia says it will resume supplying natural gas tomorrow morning. This is only after a monitoring deal has been agreed to by both parties and mediated by the European Union.

Still, it may be a while, reports the BBC, before supplies return to normal.

The overnight low temperature in Prague, Czech Republic, tonight is 15 degrees fahrenheit.

It’s been announced that Israel is in the process of accepting terms for a truce, and has called a halt to its Gaza operations.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the Tel Aviv stock exchange has had its first down day in seven days. Does this mean that the TASE likes war? Come on! Look at what’s going on in the rest of the world:

Germany: down 1.77%
France: down 1.48%
London: down 2.83%
DJIA: down 2.75% (as I write)

And other markets in Latin America are really slumping today.

What does this mean? It means that war, or lack thereof, is not affecting Israel’s stock market. In other words, “It’s the economy, stupid!”

Big job losses here in the States sent markets spinning today, and not just here in the U.S. This news sent oil dropping, which affected a number of exporting markets, like Norway and Nigeria. It sent metals, both base and precious dropping, too (the exception being platinium), which is a bit unusual. That affects producing countries like Chile and Peru.

It means that investors are going to have to look long and hard at the countries and companies they want to invest in, not just play the news and major events.

Last week I told you how Israel’s market, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was seemingly immune to rockets. Even a reporter for the Haaretz Daily Newspaper, Hagai Amit, wrote, “The bottom line, the stock market is used to rockets.”

I also told you that Israel’s TASE was more likely to be influenced by the global economic crisis than the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Turns out, I was right (so far).

In Taipan Insider, an exclusive report for all members of Taipan Publishing Group’s services, I gave an in-depth report about Israel’s performance through these crises. I said:

Last Monday, the TASE-100 rebounded as high as 550.88.
This Monday, the TASE-100 hit a high of 600.95.

In short, Israel’s TASE is following other major world indices and seemingly putting in a bottom. In spite of this ongoing conflict.

Again, Arab markets in the region are mixed, with the UAE market up nearly 6% and Qatar’s market down nearly 4%.

To me, this “proves” that the conflict is not the major factor in the region right now. The global economy is the big player.

And today, we’ve seen the TASE-100 climb even higher, popping up to 618.24, a rise of 4.5%.

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