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.

Walmart and Amazon have reportedly explored jumping into the stablecoin game, per WSJ, as legislation to regulate the instruments moves further through Congress.

• For Big Retail, it's the latest opportunity in a long-running hunt to cut billions in costs and days of delays tied to payment transactions, Axios' Brady Dale reports.

💳 What we're watching: If the retail giants end up using stablecoins (a big if in the near term), it would spell instant competition in the payments space — one that's long been dominated by the credit card giants.

• 📉 Visa shares fell 5%, while Mastercard dropped 4.6%.

Go deeper

"We still have confidence in the airplane."

— Ben Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM, in an appearance at the Paris Air Forum, addressing the safety of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner after a deadly Air India crash raised questions about the aircraft.

🥩 Brazilian meat company JBS today listed its stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares were delisted from the São Paulo Exchange earlier this month. (CNBC)

🇨🇳 China released guidance on how self-driving car data can be transmitted to foreign countries. The move sets the stage for Tesla to accelerate its autonomous vehicle technology in the country. (Bloomberg)

🏛️ David Sacks, the venture capitalist advising President Trump on crypto and AI policy, is apparently divesting his holdings in foundational AI companies and hyperscalers like xAI and Meta. (Axios)

🚢 Import volumes through the Port of Los Angeles fell 19% in May from April, a drop attributed to President Trump's tariffs. (Bloomberg)

The price premium for homes with pools is slipping back to pre-pandemic levels, Realtor.com reports.

• 🏷️ The typical asking price boost is now roughly 21% per square foot compared to homes without pools, down from a 26% peak in 2022.

🏠 The big picture: Nearly 1 in 4 listings offered a pool in April — a record high, according to the real estate site.

The bottom line: Pool or not, home prices have soared since the pandemic.

• 💦 But sellers banking on a big pool payoff might get a splash in the face.