Prices of oil, gold and shares in defence companies jumped but most stock-market benchmarks tumbled, as financial markets reacted to US reports that Iran is preparing to launch an attack on Israel.
"The United States has indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel," according to a statement from a senior White House official to US media.
The US is "actively supporting" Israel's defensive preparations against any attack, the official added.
Any attack would have repercussions for Iran, an Israeli official told newswires Reuters and Bloomberg.
Crude oil prices, as measured by Brent crude futures, jumped to $72.64 per barrel, up almost 4% from levels earlier in the day.
The price of gold also jumped to $2,670 per ounce, not far from last week's all-time highs, having dropped to $2,630 at the start of the week.
Stocks market indices on Wall Street and most of Europe saw an immediate reaction too, with the S&P 500 tumbling 1.35% and the Nasdaq Composite index plunging 2.1%.
In London, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4% as gains were seen for a mix of oil giants such as Shell and BP, precious metals miners like Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining, and defence companies including BAE Systems meant the the index remained in positive territory.
In bond markets, 10-year US treasury yield yield have sunk to a session low of 3.5715% on the Iran reports.
While oil prices have surged, market analyst Naeem Aslam at Zaye Capital said, "smart money knows that the current reaction and swollen price action is nothing more than a mosquito bite, and this is because we have seen several episodes of this fireworks.
"If a real threat were to occur, we would not see these mosquito bites, which have caused the prices to rise, but in fact, we would see the price flirting near the $100 price mark," he said.
Iran-Israel attack would have consequences
An Israeli military spokesman said the country had not yet identified an aerial threat from Iran, but that Israel's aerial defence systems were fully prepared.
Israel and Iran, it should be noted, launched missiles into each other's territory in April this year, with Israel recently firing missiles into Lebanon, as well as launching troops into its neighbour this week, on top of its continued strikes on Gaza.
An Israeli military said this afternoon that it is targeting Lebanon's capital Beirut, with local Reuters witnesses confirmed an Israeli airstrike on the suburbs.
** Update: adds details, quotes **