Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

The war in Iran is not a shocking event in the sense that we knew it was coming. Trump has been not so much hinting, but sounding a fog horn for months. As we’ve been covering on this show, he’s been amassing military assets in the region since the end of January.  So not surprising. What has surprised is Iran hitting their neighbours, the Gulf states, so hard, including oil fields and refineries. This has surprised markets. Hence what we’re seeing in Asia and at home. Same goes for the price of oil. Yesterday when we talked about that Goldman Sacks estimate of $100 a barrel by the end of the week. We got there by the end of Monday. Remember they also warned of $150 a barrel by the end of the month? Let’s hope we’re not there by Friday.  Oil and fertilizer run our agriculture sector. I listened to a grain farmer in Christchurch yesterday say daily harvesting costs would increase by $2000-$3000. Already.  We are not immune to the price spikes, but we’re also not very well insulated from them eit