The markets' reaction to the conflict in the Middle East is likely to be a decline in risk appetite and a rise in the cost of oil, analysts say 

US and Israel conduct military operation against Iran: online

The U.S. has launched "large-scale military action in Iran," President Donald Trump said in a video on the social media network Truth Social. He said the goal was to protect the US by "eliminating immediate threats from the Iranian regime."

 Trump announced the launch of a major operation against Iran

Israel has announced a "preventive" missile strike on Iran, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-28/israel-launches-attack-on-iran-as-explosions-reported-in-tehran?srnd=homepage-americas">reports</a>, citing the Israeli Defense Ministry. The U.S. is also participating in the operation, sources told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-explosion-tehran-c2f11247d8a66e36929266f2c557a54c">Associated Press</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02/28/world/iran-strikes-trump">The New York Times</a>.

Israel and the U.S. have launched airstrikes against Iran

Switzerland's financial market regulator (FINMA) <a href="https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2026/02/20260227-mm-mbaer-liquidation/">said</a> on Feb. 27 that it had begun the process of liquidating MBaer Merchant Bank after Washington <a href="https://oninvest.com/article/ssa-namereny-otklucit-svejcarskij-bank-ot-finansovoj-sistemy-za-svazi-s-iranom-i-rf">threatened to</a> deny the Swiss private bank access to the U.S. financial system for violating sanctions against Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

Switzerland has closed a bank that the U.S. has accused of having ties to Iran and Russia

US-Iran nuclear deal talks ended without an agreement

'Fear is pushing up prices': oil is at highs since summer

Swiss MBaer Merchant Bank may lose access to the U.S. financial system due to alleged ties to Iran and Russia, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-26/us-says-swiss-bank-mbaer-could-lose-access-to-financial-system?embedded-checkout=true">writes </a>. According <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0408">to the </a>U.S. Treasury Department, its financial crime unit FinCEN is working to approve a rule that would prohibit U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for or on behalf of MBaer.

US set to cut Swiss bank off from financial system for ties to Iran and Russian Federation

The market is underestimating the risks of hard-to-predict extreme events that could bring down quotations in the IT sector, economist Nassim Taleb said

Black Swan author predicts mass bankruptcies in the software sector

Netflix, Inc.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Smurfit Westrock Plc

International Paper Company

Packaging Corporation of America

Alphabet Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc.

CoreWeave, Inc.

Blue Owl Capital Inc.

Celsius Holdings, Inc.

Comfort Systems USA, Inc.

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.

AppLovin Corporation

Daily review and forecast of events on the U.S. stock market from Mikhail Denislamov, Deputy Director of Freedom Capital Markets Research.

Morning in New York: tariff policy in the spotlight

Chevron Corporation

Exxon Mobil Corporation

BP p.l.c.

Shell plc

The talks are "guaranteed to fail" and then $100 a barrel oil is "well within reach," FGE NexantECA, a consulting firm, warned

Oil has fallen in price after the US and Iran's decision to continue nuclear talks. What's next?

Alibaba Group Holding Limited

Tencent Holdings Limited

Investors take insurance in case bitcoin drops to $60,000

Bitcoin falls below $65,000, gold hits three-week peak due to Trump's duties

NVIDIA Corporation

SoftBank Corp.

Microsoft Corporation

Nvidia is close to investing up to $30 billion in OpenAI at the startup's valuation of $730 billion - the new deal will replace the previous $100 billion framework agreement, which was never legally formalized, and will be part of OpenAI's funding round worth over $100 billion. Oil is holding near six-month highs after US President Donald Trump's ultimatum to Iran and America's largest military build-up in the Middle East since 2003. These and other topics are in our review of key events for the morning of February 20.

Morning Highlights: Nvidia to invest $30 billion in OpenAI, gold at $5000, oil at highs

Brent was up 2% after rising 4% a day earlier