If prices go up, Fed officials may be inclined to raise its benchmark rate, raising borrowing costs for businesses and consumers. That could lead to businesses to cut jobs, particularly in the high-growth tech sector, and force Americans to pull back on spending, which drives more than 70% of economic activity in the U.S.

Israel launched a wave of unprecedented strikes on Iran shortly before sunrise Friday morning, hitting key sites in the nation’s nuclear program.

Before the opening bell earlier today, LMT stock shot up more than 4% as Israel launched an operation targeting Iran’s nuclear program. Adding to concerns of a global conflagration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that military actions “will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”

Investors had two reactions to Israel's broad attack on Iran late Thursday: They sold stocks broadly and bought crude oil and gold. Futures trading suggests the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will open down 52 points.

The price of oil surged Friday in one of the market’s largest single-day increases in years, reflecting fears that a wider conflict in the Middle East could lead to serious energy supply disruptions.

Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s vows of reprisals have brought the two Middle East adversaries closer to an all-out war, which also threatens to draw in the United States, at least to

Shapiro served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East until January—charged with, among other things, considering scenarios in which tensions between Israel and Iran escalated into all-out war and preparing U.