Palestine Financial News

Treasuries rallied on Tuesday, pushing two-year yields to their lowest in a month, due to a combination of demand for safe-haven assets amid ongoing violence in the Middle East and dovish Federal Reserve remarks that suggested the central bank may be done raising interest rates. Cash Treasury markets had been closed for a holiday on Monday, so Tuesday morning was traders' first chance to react to Palestinian militants' attack on Israel over the weekend as well as Fed officials' overnight comments. Benchmark 10-year yields were on track for their largest daily drop since July, while those on the two-year were on pace for the biggest daily decline since late August. «We had dovish statements yesterday by Fed officials and then you have flight to safety here from the tragic events in Israel. So people are being a little bit of cautious here,» said Stan Shipley, managing director and macro research analyst at Evercore ISI in New York. «We probably have seen the peak in rates here as seasonal factors are favorable for lower rates in November and December.

Crypto exchange Binance has frozen accounts linked to Hamas militants as per requests from Israeli law enforcement.

World Bank President Ajay Banga said on Tuesday that the Israel-Gaza conflict is an unnecessary global economic shock that will make it harder for central banks to achieve soft landings in many economies if it spreads. «It's a humanitarian tragedy and it's an economic shock we don't need,» Banga told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Morocco. Central banks were «beginning to feel a little more confident that there was an opportunity for a soft landing, and this just makes it harder», Banga said. Banga said there was less immediate economic impact than at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year because the Israel-Gaza conflict does not impact exports of oil, grains and fertilizers. But it does transmit through financial markets, with dollar assets suddenly rising, he said. Inflation has come down in recent months, prices and wages were stabilizing and markets had become used to the idea that rates would stay higher for longer, Banga said, adding that another prolonged conflict could upset those dynamics. «It's the side effects of all that.

Gold prices slipped on Tuesday after rising nearly 2% in the previous session as investors cautiously turned back to riskier assets and looked forward to further cues on the U.S. central bank's policy stance. Spot gold was down 0.3% at 1,856.39 per ounce as of 10:58 a.m. EDT (1458 GMT) after rising to a more than one week high earlier in the session.

Oil prices oil fell more than $1 a barrel on Tuesday, continuing a slide that began earlier in the day with traders focused on demand levels but still cautious as they watched for potential supply disruptions amid military clashes between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Brent crude was down $1.18 at $86.97 a barrel as of 9:37 a.m. CDT (1437 GMT), while U.S.

Investing.com — Oil prices edged lower Tuesday, handing back some of the previous session’s hefty gains as traders digest the possibility of a wider impact from the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Vivian Silver’s son was anxiously texting with his mother on Saturday morning, as Hamas gunmen closed in on her home near Israel’s Gaza border. Her last message read: “They’re inside the house.”The 74-year-old Canadian-Israeli spent her adult life campaigning for peace and human rights for Palestinians, particularly those living in impoverished Gaza.Silver is now presumed to be a prisoner, among the dozens of civilian hostages held by Hamas following the militant group’s coordinated weekend attack on Israeli soil.“This is almost surreal to think that someone who dedicated their entire life to building peace, ending the occupation, lifting the siege of Gaza, is kidnapped by Hamas,” said Ariel Dloomy, Silver’s former colleague at the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, in an interview with Global News.Silver grew up in Winnipeg and moved to Israel in the 1970s.

By Harry Robertson and Tom Westbrook

Hamas and Israel, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar seeking intervention to ensure the safety of Indian citizens in Israel. «A good number of people around 7000 are from the state of Kerala. The continuing hostilities are putting these civilians to extreme hardship and their family members are in a state of extreme anxiety,» Vijayan said in the October 9 dated letter to the Union Minister Jaishankar. «I request your good self to intervene in every possible manner to ensure the safety of our citizens in Israel,» the Kerala chief minister wrote. A woman from Kerala working as a caregiver in Israel was injured in the conflict on Saturday. On Monday, the CPI-M Kerala Secretariat in a statement had urged the central government to take steps to ensure the safety of the Keralites stuck in Israel.

Fauda, which is Arabic for chaos, premiered as a TV series on Netflix in 2015, developed by Avi Issacharoff and lead actor Lior Raz, who was as real in his role of the protagonist as the story the series told. In its stylised action, breathless suspense, eerie intrigue and lyrical portrayal of revenge and loss, Fauda gave a face to the conflict. In its four seasons, Fauda showed how Israel-Palestine conflict is not just a war of ideologies or a battle for land but also a story of husbands, wives, parents, children, siblings and lovers.

Israel intensified airstrikes on Gaza on Tuesday while the Israeli military prepared for a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave that Israeli officials warned could be more destructive than any offensive there in recent history. Israeli airstrikes reduced parts of an exclusive Gaza City neighborhood to rubble as the Israeli government stepped up its reaction to this weekend’s cross-border incursion by Hamas gunmen who killed more than 900 Israelis and took more than 100 hostage. Israeli strikes have killed more than 780 people in Gaza since, according to the enclave’s health ministry.

For currency traders, it’s hard to be a bull of anything except the dollar, it seems.

Investing.com — European stock markets rose Tuesday, with investors returning their focus to potential central bank moves while keeping an eye on the conflict in the Middle East.

Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures inched higher, with investors closely monitoring policy commentary from Federal Reserve officials and ongoing developments in the conflict in the Middle East. Traders hunt for safety in U.S. Treasuries as bond markets return from the Columbus Day holiday, while Country Garden shares slump after the cash-strapped Chinese developer misses an international debt payment.

By Paul Carsten

The International Monetary Fund warns that the world economy has lost momentum from the impact of higher interest rates, the invasion in Ukraine and widening geopolitical rifts

PTI, he sought to downplay the concerns emanating from Washington about China's intentions to challenge the United States' superpower status. The "Thucydides Trap" refers to a concept where an emerging power poses a potential threat to replace the existing dominant power.

Gaza is burning as Israeli forces methodically proceed to dismantle its structures of terror. The coming retribution will be terrible, but it is necessary and just. Hamas has lost the right to rule Gaza.

Amit Sachdeva, India Equity Strategist, HSBC Securities, says “there are two vulnerabilities for India; one is obviously a geopolitical crisis. If it spirals out of control, then it might weigh on India's investment case. But US bond yields have also risen quite sharply. That has seen some outflow as well. But if you look at the overall picture for India's Goldilocks scenario, I would hazard a guess that India is in a decisive bull run and we are in the middle of it right now.” What is your take on the Israel-Palestine war? The way both local and global markets have been resilient, it looks like markets are saying this is not Russia and Ukraine. This is very localized and is unlikely to have a financial disruption. Geopolitical situations are always interesting and also hard to predict. One thing can lead to another. I am not going to call that out, to be honest. But the market obviously has taken a view that the situation will be contained. It would not spiral out of control, et cetera. So at least the market has taken that view. My sense is that could probably be the fair view as well. But more importantly, India's context is very interesting because India has been an outperforming region three years in a row. That makes many people wonder whether these rallies can continue. But I think we need to drill down into the entire Goldilocks scenario of India.

Hamas is currently holding a “substantial” number of people hostage, according to Israel’s military, as fears grow that those could include foreign nationals from up to 12 different countries who are missing after the militant group’s unprecedented attack.

Humanitarian groups are scrambling to assist civilians caught in the war between Israel and Hamas and determine what aid operations are still safe to continue, efforts that are being complicated by an intensified blockade of Gaza and the ongoing fighting