The United States and Israel carried out what U.S. officials and people on the ground called the most intense airstrikes inside Iran, even as markets appeared to believe President Donald Trump would move to end the fighting soon.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned they would block oil shipments from the Gulf unless U.S. and Israeli attacks stop, a threat that raises the prospect of renewed disruption to global energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
Energy markets reacted sharply but unevenly: after a spike to nearly 120 dollars a barrel, Brent prices had settled back down below 90 dollars by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, while Asian and European equities staged partial recoveries and Wall Street bounced toward late-February levels.
The human and financial cost is mounting: the U.S. used 5.6 billion dollars in munitions in the first two days of strikes, and aides say the White House may soon seek as much as 50 billion dollars more — a tally that is sharpening worries about longer-term economic fallout.
