Last week, we were expecting the situation in the Middle East to stay within a relatively controllable range and, as a result, for financial markets to remain broadly stable. However, judging from last Friday’s and early this week’s surge in oil prices, even though there are still no clear signs that the war has formally widened, the risk of it spinning out of control is already on the table. If, at this critical juncture, Trump still cannot come up with a credible exit plan, both financial markets and geopolitics may be hit by a new tsunami. The impact of oil prices on the global financial system and on people’s daily lives via inflation is self-evident. Yet in just a little over a week, we’ve seen a 60% spike in prices, while the key Strait of Hormuz remains in a state of abnormal, semi‑