Oil rose Monday to its highest level since September 2008 and gold rallied for a sixth day, surpassing $1,400 an ounce, as tension in the Middle East escalated.
U.S. markets were closed for the Presidents Day holiday, but stocks in foreign markets fell the most in a month as Eni SpA led companies with operations in Libya lower.
Brent crude gained 5.3 percent to $107.93. Gold climbed 1.2 percent, and silver added 3.8 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 1.3 percent, with Eni sinking the most since July 2009. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures lost 0.9 percent. Bah rain’s 2020 bond yield increased for a 10th day after S&P cut the nation’s debt rating. The yen and the dollar strengthened against most of their major peers.
Libyan security forces attacked anti-government protesters as demonstrations spread across the Middle East and North Africa, a region that accounts for 36 percent of global crude output. Chinese authorities blocked foreign news reports on protests across the country to stamp out any movement toward pro-democracy revolts.
“You’ve got to be very concerned, particularly because it can affect the oil price, and if you have the oil price spike up another $20, $30, you could re-enter a global recession,” Bill Belchere, global chief economist at Mirae Asset Securities, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong.
West Texas Intermediate oil for April delivery jumped 6.3 percent to $95.39 a barrel in New York. Gold climbed as high as $1,408.45 an ounce and last traded at $1,406.45. The six days of gains is the longest streak since August. Silver rose to a 30-year high of $33.8925 an ounce.
Eni, the largest foreign oil- and-gas producer in Libya, lost 5.1 percent, while OMV AG, central Europe’s biggest oil company, which has been in Libya since 1975, slid 4.2 percent.
Tekfen Holding AS tumbled 7.9 percent as the Turkish builder suspended work on a Libyan project, saying its priority now is the safe evacuation of 1,197 non-Libyan employees.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slid 0.1 percent.
