Markets started the week defensively, with escalating Middle East hostilities and hawkish central bank expectations weighing on risk appetite. Brent crude surged over 3% towards $106, having gained nearly 9% last week, following fresh attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and a drone strike that temporarily shut Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline. AI-related stocks including Nvidia, AMD, and Sandisk also fell after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged the industry to slow frontier model development over safety concerns. Investors are preparing for this week's Federal Reserve meeting, with Friday's hotter CPI report pushing markets to price an approximately 85% probability of a 25-basis-point Fed hike on Wednesday.