The war in the Middle East continues to dominate the economic agenda. As financial market participants become concerned that the war could become more protracted, prices and rates are lurching in all directions.
At the close on Tuesday, the broad OMXS index plunged 2.7 percent, following yesterday's 2 percent drop.
The development was in line with European stock markets, where London, Paris and Frankfurt all ended the day in the red. This makes the two-day decline the biggest since April last year, when Donald Trump's tariffs spooked markets.
All heavyweights fell, with large engineering companies at the bottom. Among the biggest losers was Nibe, down 6.7 percent. Boliden also had a particularly tough day with a loss of over 5 percent, as did Atlas Copco, which ended down 3.7 percent.
Oil was rising steadily, hovering around $83-84 per barrel for North Sea crude in the afternoon, up from about $77 the previous night and just over $70 last week.
The surge in gas prices continued, rising around 30 percent on Tuesday alone after, among other things, reports that a giant gas plant in Qatar has stopped operations and that the strategic Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed. This is affecting the price of electricity, which is rising further in the financial markets.
