Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Yom Kippur war: oil, gold and stocks

If US-Israel strike Iranian nuclear facilities, a rational Iran would find a way to retaliate without risking all out war, which it would lose. Blocking the strait of Hormuz risks such a defeat, but inciting the Shia populated East-Arabian oil fields into rebellion against the Saudi monarchy is a possible proxy move that would put some sand in the wheels of a direct US intervention. This would be Iran's tit-for-tat response to the Saudi-NATO-Israeli backing of the salafi insurgency in Syria, which also provides a bulwark against Iranian retaliation through that country. Will the effect on oil, gold and stocks be similar to that of the 1973 Yom Kippur war?  The impact on oil:




Gold that decade correlated strongly with oil, albeit with a more volatile pattern. A notable divergence was the 1974-5 recession where gold gave back nearly all of the rise attributed to the war.




S&P500 performance during and after the 1973 war: during the war +1.4%; three months -13.2%; one year -37%; three years -9.3%; five years -13.8%.

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