Global stocks sell off as AI trade cools, Middle East tensions escalate

The telling detail is the cross-asset divergence: gold and silver selling off alongside equities while Brent rallies on supply risk suggests this is a de-risking and liquidity event rather than a haven bid, with precious metals caught in the unwind. The AI trade cooling is doing as much work as geopolitics here, hitting high-multiple names like Tesla and Asia's tech-heavy benchmarks hardest. Whether the gold weakness persists once the equity selling stabilizes is the open question, as is whether oil's supply premium outlasts the headline risk.