Daily Stock Market Report (Mon 2nd March 2026) - Mid East conflict, TSTL, CRW, SNR, SSTY

Good morning!

After the strikes in Iran over the weekend, markets are currently set to open as follows:Samp;P 500 down 1.5%FTSE down 0.8%VIX Volatility Index has moved from 21 to 22Gold up 2% at $5,400 US crude oil up $5 at $72Update at 11am: In Friday’s Week Ahead article, I rather optimistically hoped for a week in which we could ignore politics and focus purely on interesting investment opportunities.

That hope didn’t last long as we now have conflict in the Middle East with Iranian strikes today after the US carried out “Operation Epic Fury” in conjunction with Israel over the weekend.

While the FTSE is down by less than 1%, I thought it would be worth mentioning some of the bigger movers.

The fallers:

Informa (LON:INF) down 7% due to its Middle Eastern exposureCroda International (LON:CRDA) and Smith amp; Nephew (LON:SN.)  Both down 5-6% (SN has results today)International Consolidated Airlines SA (LON:IAG) down 5%Banks Barclays (LON:BARC) and Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) down 5%And the risers:

Defence stock BAE Systems (LON:BA.)  up 6%Oil/commodities stocks