Fly on WallStreet

Although the market's weakness in the past half hour coincided with the Commerce Dept's announcement that it will apply new duties on chinese imports, we also thought we'd pass along another item regarding tensions with Iran that could make the rounds today. Debka reports that "US financial sources in Bahrain report American investors in Bahrain advised to pack up business operations and leave... The advice came from officers with US Central Command 5th Fleet HQ at Manama, who spoke of security tension, a hint at an approaching war with Iran. Arab sources report the positioning of a Patriot anti-missile battery in Bahrain this week; they say occupancy at emirate hotels has soared past 90% due mostly to the influx of US military personnel..."

(Briefing.com note: Keep in mind that Debka has published some attention-grabbing "news" items in the past that never panned out, so this should be taken with a grain of salt. But since the tensions in the Persian Gulf between the West and Iran continue to ratchet higher each day, the stock market seems to get easily spooked by any headlines or rumors that imply it could reach a crisis point.)