Market Reaction: Defense and Energy Stocks Rally
Israel’s overnight missile strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites jolted global markets and triggered a defensive rotation. Oil prices shot higher on fears of supply disruption, Brent crude jumped roughly seven percent and West Texas Intermediate about eight percent, lifting energy majors such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. Aerospace-and-defense names also moved sharply up, with Lockheed Martin and RTX trading several percentage points higher before the opening bell. Palantir Technologies, although a software firm, rallied in tandem as investors treated it as a proxy for modern warfare spending: the stock climbed about