Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he had received successful treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, without specifying when the treatment took place.

In a statement on social media, as his annual medical report was released, Netanyahu, 76, said an early stage malignant tumor had been discovered during a routine checkup.

He said “targeted treatment” had removed “the problem” and left no trace of it.

According to the medical report, which otherwise said the prime minister was in good health, Netanyahu was treated with radiation therapy for early-stage prostate cancer.

Neither the medical report nor Netanyahu said when the treatment occurred.

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister said that he had delayed the release of the medical report by two months to prevent Iran from spreading “false propaganda against Israel”.

In March, during the US-Israeli war on Iran, rumors that circulated on social media and aired on Iranian state media alleged that Netanyahu had died.

The Israeli leader later recorded a video of himself visiting a Jerusalem cafe in March to refute the claims.

Netanyahu underwent surgery on his prostate in 2024 after he was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection resulting from a benign prostate enlargement. In 2023, he was fitted with a pacemaker.

Elections are due to be held in Israel by October.

The traditional global asset correlations that collapsed when the war in the Middle East erupted remain broken, leaving investors to piece together strategies to trade the road to resolution with a faulty instrument panel.

Record highs for Wall Street stocks belie concerns about fraught geopolitics, how long energy supplies might be disrupted for and long-term economic damage.

BMO chief FX strategist Mark McCormick reckons the next three to six months will not resemble the “pre-conflict normal”.

“The growth factor is recovering, but remains below late-2025 levels, the rates (monetary policy) factor remains elevated, correlations are shifting, and drawdown risk is rising. Something new is forming,” he said in a note.

Here’s a look at the disruption to classic correlations in stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities that have traditionally provided a steer on economic trends.

A hard test for fixed income

Stocks and bond yields usually move together, as investors tend to hedge economic growth worries, which hit stocks, by buying bonds, sending yields lower and vice versa. That relationship has been more erratic since the pandemic, as higher inflation and government debt undermine the ability of bonds to act as a hedge against equity risk.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a pre-war blog in February, warned that investors and policymakers must rethink risk management for “a new era” where traditional hedges fail.

Two-year bonds, sensitive to inflation and interest rate expectations, have been in the eye of the storm.

The one-month rolling correlation between two-year Treasury yields and the S&P 500 has collapsed to around -0.8 from an average of 0.23 over the last five years.

Since the war started, that metric is at -0.63. A near-identical pattern emerges for two-year German yields and European stocks.

“There definitely wasn’t a move into sovereign fixed income in March, which, at least at the front end, you might have expected,” said State Street head of macro strategy Michael Metcalfe.

“This was a hard test for fixed income, because it was an inflation shock and also potentially a growth shock, which doesn’t help the long-term fiscal concerns.”

Gold is misbehaving

Gold has ditched its safe-haven credentials since the war began, moving unusually closely with equities and even volatile crypto. It remains 10 per cent below pre-war levels.

Gold usually boasts a robustly negative correlation to the dollar. When volatility picks up to the point where investors ditch stocks, bonds and other markets, the dollar emerges as the main beneficiary, as has been the case during the war.

Since late February, the correlation between gold and the dollar has softened to around -0.19 from an average of -0.4, while the correlation between gold and stocks has been around 0.55, up from a five-year average of 0.22.

This probably speaks more to the correlation of the dollar to stocks, which has hit a record -0.94 this week, indicating an almost-perfect inverse relationship, versus a five-year average of -0.28.

Meanwhile, the bitcoin/stocks correlation is at a record 0.96, from an average of 0.4 pre-war, denting the case for crypto as a diversifier.

Extraordinary events have unusual effects

The prospect of an inflation shock has prompted traders to price in rate hikes, particularly in Europe, and to lower expectations of rate cuts in the United States.

Higher rates in one region than another usually imply strength for one currency over another, but even this relationship has broken down.

The European Central Bank is expected to hike rates twice this year, while the Federal Reserve leans towards a cut. Yet the euro, at around $1.17, has barely recovered its war-driven losses.

“Extraordinary events can have unusual effects on financial markets, often altering traditional relationships between financial variables,” UniCredit said, adding that the relationship between euro/dollar and rate differentials is one of those casualties.

Using the difference between two-year US and euro zone swap rates, the correlation between rate differentials and the euro itself is at 0.5, up from near 0 at the start of the year and compared with an average of -0.3 in the last two years.

“We do not think that rate differentials are likely to return to being the key driver for euro/dollar until the war-driven risk premium has dissipated,” UniCredit added.

Divorced from fundamentals

Rising oil prices would normally lift inflation expectations, but these have fallen since the war started. The five-year forward US inflation swap, a gauge of investors’ long-term inflation expectations, is around 2.4pc, from closer to 2.45pc. Oil prices are still around 40pc higher.

The correlation between the two is around -0.7, above the five-year average of 0.2. During the 2022 energy shock, it hit a high of 0.7 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Deutsche Bank says this switch could be partly down to an expected increase in US fiscal deficits as Washington funds the war.

“But another possibility is that forward inflation compensation has become increasingly divorced from fundamentals,” the bank said.

MILAN: The suggestion that Iran should be replaced by Italy at this year’s World Cup drew a mix of embarrassment and apathy from fans of Italy’s national football team on Thursday, with the Italian media reminding readers that the idea has a very familiar feel.

Donald Trump’s US special envoy Paolo Zampolli told the Financial Times that he made the suggestion to the US president and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“I’m an Italian native and it would be a dream to see the Azzurri [Italy’s national football team] at a US-hosted tournament. With four titles, they have the pedigree to justify inclusion,” said Zampolli, an Italian-American who is Trump’s envoy for “Global Partnership” but has no official connection with the World Cup or Italian football.

The plan seems to be an effort to repair ties bet­ween Trump and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after the two fell out amid the US president’s attacks against Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.

Italy’s main sports news websites have given the story only a passing reference.

Sports Minister Andrea Abodi told the Italian news agency LaPresse: “Firstly it is not possible, secondly it is not appropriate … You qualify on the pitch.”

Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti went further, saying the idea was “shameful”.

Leading Italian coach Gianni De Biasi told Reuters it was an unlikely proposal with any theoretical Iranian absence logically filled by the team behind them in their qualification group.

“Furthermore, I believe Italy doesn’t need Trump’s support on an issue like this. I think we can manage on our own,” he said.

Soccer’s world governing body FIFA responded by pointing to Infantino’s previous comments on Iran’s participation.

“The Iranian team is coming, for sure,” he said last week: “Iran has to come if they are to represent their people. They really want to play, and they should play. Sport should be outside politics.”

The White House, the Italian Football Federation and Asian Football Confederation did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Currently there is no suggestion that Iran will withdraw or be banned from the tournament, which Italy missed out on after losing in a playoff for the third World Cup in a row.

Iran qualified for a fourth successive World Cup last year but, after the start of the war, requested that FIFA move the team’s three group matches from the US to Mexico — which was rejected.

Iran is seemingly proceeding as planned. “We are preparing and making arrangements for the World Cup, but we are obedient to the decisions of the authorities,” Iranian football federation President Mehdi Taj told reporters at a pro-government rally in Tehran on Wednesday.

The World Cup, which is also being co-hosted by Mexico and Canada, gets underway on June 11 with Iran scheduled to kick off their campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles four days later.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2026