It's been announced that Israel is in the process of accepting terms for a truce, and has called a halt to its Gaza operations. Surprisingly, perhaps, the Tel Aviv stock exchange has had its first down day in seven days. Does this mean that the TASE likes war? Come on! Look at what's going on in the rest of the world: Germany: down 1.77% France: down 1.48% London: down 2.83% DJIA: down 2.75% (as I write) And other markets in Latin America are really slumping today. What does this mean? It means that war, or lack thereof, is not affecting Israel's stock market. In other words, "It's the economy, stupid!" Big job losses here in the States sent markets spinning today, and not just here in the U.S. This news sent oil dropping, which affected a number of exporting markets, like Norway and Nigeria. It sent metals, both base and precious dropping, too (the exception being platinium), which is a bit unusual. That affects producing countries like Chile and Peru. It means that investors are going to have to look long and hard at the countries and companies they want to invest in, not just play the news and major events.