A month or so ago, when talk of an Israeli air strike against Iran’s nuclear-weapons facilities began to heat up, I suggested watching the price of crude to tell us whether the threat might have escalated beyond the level of rumor and speculation.  Quotes are pushing into the red zone now, so I’d suggest taking a good look at today’s tout for the March futures contract. It explains what to look for, technically speaking, so that we might ‘know’ whether the price of crude is about to blast off.

Meanwhile, in the news tonight is an item that could be correlated to a heightened threat:  Iran has rejected the U.N. watchdog’s request to inspect a key military facility. So much for the Islamic Republic’s repeated assertions they have nothing to hide.