Oil supplies from the Middle East face increasing risk as the conflict between Israel and Iran drags on, according to RBC Capital Markets LLC, which warned that energy is now “clearly in the crosshairs.

By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) -Asian shares proved resilient on Monday and oil prices rose anew as the conflict between Israel and Iran showed no sign of cooling, adding geopolitical uncertainty to the world's economic troubles in a week packed with central bank meetings.

Oil prices rose as much as 12 per cent in the immediate aftermath of Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Over the weekend the conflict escalated further with Israel hitting, among other targets,

FTSE 100 futures are about flat, after the index skirted the worst of a small selloff on Friday, and oil prices have cooled from an earlier spike but remain higher.

The importance of oil and gas can't be underestimated at times when conflicts occur, something that was currently being seen, the head of Saudi oil giant Aramco told an energy conference on Monday.

Markets, as always, are focusing on what they can most easily quantify — the oil price. The consensus, which seems sensible to us, is that while prices might go higher from here, the chance of a big spiralling increase is quite low.

A sustained rise in the price of crude oil, which jumped sharply after Israel attacked Iran, could hurt consumers and President Trump’s efforts to bring down energy costs.

A sustained surge in oil prices is likely to complicate the U.S. fight against inflation. A $10-a-barrel increase would boost year-over-year growth in the Consumer Price Index by 0.5 percentage points,

Palm oil jumped above the 4,000 ringgit mark to track gains in soyoil, which surged on Washington’s proposal to allow refiners to blend a record amount of biofuels into gasoline and diesel next year.