Betty Liu explains financial market impacts from global unrest

Betty Liu explains financial market impacts from global unrest | Money in :60 | GZERO Media

How can global unrest impact financial markets?

So geopolitical events do affect financial markets. And these events are everything from wars, civil unrest, natural disaster, terrorism. During those times, investors flock to safe haven assets. So, that can be gold, it can be defensive stocks that generally have stable earnings and dividends. As you saw back in 9/11, investors flocked to safe haven assets.

How did the markets respond to the recent events in Iran?

So, Iran is in a region that accounts for about a third of the world's oil. So, what you saw was oil prices spike to a seven year high to seventy dollars a barrel. There was concern at that time that basically, oil production would be disrupted. And so that's why you saw investors flock to safe haven assets.

More from GZERO Media

A cargo ship is loading and unloading foreign trade containers at Qingdao Port in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, China on May 7, 2025.
Photo by CFOTO/Sipa USA

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Geneva on Saturday in a bid to ease escalating trade tensions that have led to punishing tariffs of up to 145%. Ahead of the meetings, Trump said that he expects tariffs to come down.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks on the phone to US President Donald Trump at a car factory in the West Midlands, United Kingdom, on May 8, 2025.
Alberto Pezzali/Pool via REUTERS

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer achieved what his Conservative predecessors couldn’t.

The newly elected Pope Leo XIV (r), US-American Robert Prevost, appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican after the conclave.

On Thursday, Robert Francis Prevost was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Leo XIV and becoming the first American pontiff — defying widespread assumptions that a US candidate was a long shot.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson talks with reporters in the US Capitol on May 8, 2025.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA

US House Speaker Mike Johnson is walking a tightrope on Medicaid — and wobbling.

US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, on May 6, 2025.
REUTERS/Leah Millis

The first official meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump was friendlier than you might expect given the recent tensions in the relationship.