Stocks Plunge As Investors Fear Fallout From Israel’s Iran Attack

Following Israel’s military strike on Iran, which sent investors running to safe havens like gold and the Swiss franc, stocks fell sharply in Friday’s 13th of June 2025, Asian trading, with a selloff in Wall Street futures leading the decline.

At a time when the U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough and unpredictable trade policies are putting additional pressure on the world economy.

The growing number of conflicts in the Middle East, a significant oil-producing region, adds another layer of worry for financial markets.

Market Responded

The market responded quickly. “Nasdaq futures plummeted 1.8% while U.S. S&P E-mini futures fell 1.7%. Futures for the Pan-European STOXX 50 fell 1.6%.”

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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.8%, South Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.1%, and Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.3%.

According to Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo, “the diplomatic crisis adds a further level of risk to an already unstable attitude.”

If tensions continue to grow worse, crude oil and safe-haven assets will continue to rise. Jessica Amir, a strategist at MooMoo, said that after an almost continuous climb since early April that saw the MSCI All-Country World index reach an all-time high this week, global stock markets were set to fall.

Stocks Decline

She stated that “It simply seems like this is the trigger that will most likely cause stocks to decline.”

Following what it described as a “premature strike” over Iran’s nuclear program, Israel announced it was imposing a state of emergency in preparation of a missile and drone strike by Tehran.

Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed in the Israeli strike, Iranian state media revealed on Friday.

Members of Iran’s general staff, especially the chief of staff and numerous senior nuclear specialists, were probably killed, according to an Israeli defense official earlier.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that Washington was not involved in Israel’s strikes against Iran, calling them a “only one side action.”

6th Round Of Negotiation

As Trump’s attempts to strike a nuclear agreement with Iran seem to be at a standstill, tensions have been rising.

According to authorities from both nations and their Omani mediators, a 6th round of negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials about Tehran’s expanding uranium enrichment program was set for Sunday in Oman.

In speed for safer assets, U.S. Treasuries were purchased, causing the return on (10) year notes to drop to “4.31%”, a one-month low.

The yen, another safe haven, increased by “0.3% to 143.12 per dollar”, while the Swiss franc received around “0.4% to 0.8072 per dollar”. With the dollar index up “0.5% to 98.131”, some traders were also drawn to the dollar as a safe haven.

Regaining some of its “0.9%” overnight advance to its best level since October 2021, the euro fell “0.4% to $1.1538”.

Early in the day, sterling hit a new high since February 2022 at “$1.3613”, then it fell “0.5% to $1.3554”. According to Tony Sycamore, a researcher at IG, “we are going to see an additional decline in the risk mood as traders cut higher-risk positions ahead of the weekend although we expect further news and possible reactions from Iran.”