As oil surges, stocks fall but “resilient” market “could rip up”

Markets mostly fell on Monday after a weekend attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil-production facilities.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent and the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.6 percent while the Shanghai Composite was little-changed.

Oil prices surged. West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude jumped 14.7 and 14.6 percent respectively.

“While U.S.-China trade and U.S. oil supply growth have been the primary price drivers we see a return of the political risk premium as the market has been arguably complacent about risk events,” said Jon Rigby, an analyst at UBS.

Other analysts remain sanguine though.

“It will take a lot to disrupt the bull case for U.S. stocks and today’s selloff that stemmed from the Saudi oil field attacks could see buyers eventually re-emerge,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at brokerage Oanda.

Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management, suggested that the small decline in stocks showed how resilient the market is. “Any good news, and this market could rip up,” he said.