Commodity Prices

• Aluminum: $2,240/ton
• Antimony (ingot min. 99.65% fob China): $12,000/ton
• Cobalt: $33,420/ton
• Copper: $8,046/ton
• Gold: $1,850/toz
• Lead: $2,144/ton
• Natural Gas (Nymex): $3.41/MMbtu
• WTI Crude Oil (Nymex): $85.72/barrel (+4% on concerns that conflict in Israel / Gaza will interrupt crude supplies in the region)
• Zinc: $2,509/ton

• Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, killing hundreds of civilians celebrating a Jewish holiday at festivals in southern Israeli towns and taking at least 100 hostages into Gaza.
• Israel responded forcefully by bombarding Gaza with airstrikes and vowing to make Hamas pay an "unprecedented price" for starting this new war. Analysts are anticipating a major Israeli ground offensive into Gaza.
• Qatar is now brokering negotiations for a prisoner swap in which Hamas would release some female hostages in exchange for Israel releasing 36 Palestinian women and children from its prisons.

• The WSJ reported that Iranian security officers helped Hamas plan the initial attack, raising concerns that this could expand into a broader regional war.
• Hezbollah - which is also backed by Iran - joined the fray too, firing at several Israeli military positions in the north "in solidarity" with Hamas.
• Iran's (likely) involvement in this is drawing new criticism of last month's prisoner swap deal that released $6 billion in frozen funds to Iran. SecState Blinken rejected suggestions that Iran used some of those funds to stage attacks on Israel: he insisted that "not a single dollar" of it has been spent yet.

• A series of earthquakes struck western Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 2,400 people. Afghanistan's chronically-underfunded clinics are struggling to treat thousands more who were wounded.