TV news on Israel's strike on Iran at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The escalating war between Israel and Iran jolted oil prices higher and sent investors rushing to the safety of gold heading into the weekend.
The latest: Iran launched a counterattack against Israel just hours ago, firing around 150 missiles in two initial barrages.
That came 18 hours after Israel attacked Iran's nuclear facilities and missile sites and killed dozens of top military leaders and nuclear scientists.
📈 Market impact: While oil has come down from earlier highs on the day, crude futures were still up over 8% late in the afternoon.
Spot gold prices rose 1.6% to $3,433, hovering just below an all-time high in April.
📉 Stocks fell on the day, as losses in airlines and companies linked to travel outweighed gains for defense and energy stocks.
But the losses were relatively muted: The S&P 500 slipped 1.1%, but is still in positive territory for the year, and up nearly 20% from this year's low in April.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq and Russell 2000 index of small caps slipped 1.3% and 1.9% on the day, respectively.
