Possibly with all the monetary stimulus and other catalysts, oil and gold were just itching for a reason to go higher. But on Thursday morning oil convincingly launched higher on news that Iran shot down a US drone.
Gold, which had rather mysteriously spiked earlier on Wednesday night stayed elevated, even as copper, platinum and palladium all tumbled back lower throughout the day.
The drone shot down was a very advanced, and large version equipped presumably with the latest and most advanced spying and detection hardware. This action moves us a few notches closer to an actual shooting war with Iran.
From the Moon of Alabama blog we get this description:
The U.S. says that the drone was a MQ-4C Triton, the navy variant of the Global Hawk type that is specialized on Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS). It claims that the drone was in international airspace when Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot it down.
(Interestingly no MQ-4C is supposed to be in the Middle East. The deployment must have been secret. Update: This specific drone seems to have arrived in Qatar only five days ago. Additional details are discussed here. /update)
It’s pretty rare for such an advanced piece of hardware to be risked let alone lost. The fact that Iran shot it down speaks loudly to the fact that Iran would be a very different adversary than any found in Afghanistan or Iraq. Not everyone can detect, target and then hit such a distant target.
Trump immediately denounced the shoot-down and hinted at some sort of a response:
Later in the day, Trump backed way off and suddenly was very conciliatory and generous to Iran’s possible motivations by say it may have been a mistake:
Trump Says Downing of U.S. Drone May Have Been Unintentional
President Trump suggested Iran’s downing of a U.S. military drone was unintentional and triggered by someone “loose and stupid,” providing at least momentary relief from the potential threat of a military confrontation in the Persian Gulf.
by spanishpaco 
