Actions with HALO, the brand new pearls of Hormuz | Opinion | EUROtoday

The acronym HALO, coined by Josh Brown CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and popularized by Goldman Sachs in early 2026, refers to a category of corporations that could be proof against AI disruption. The acronym comes from English Heavy Assets, Low Obsolescence and refers to all these corporations that require a considerable amount of bodily infrastructure for his or her enterprise and that don’t run the chance of shortly turning into out of date as a consequence of synthetic intelligence.

On the opposite hand, the current struggle within the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran has skyrocketed the worth of gasoline and oil, which, coincidentally, are sectors with HALO.

Every time I hear a information merchandise that Ormuz mentions, I can not assist however mentally recite Rubén Darío’s sonatina that the kids of my era realized by coronary heart: “The princess is sad… what will the princess have? / The sighs escape from her strawberry mouth, / that has lost its laughter, that has lost its color. / The princess is pale in her golden chair, / the keyboard of her sound key is mute; / and in a glass, forgotten, she a flower faints. // Do you think of the prince of Golconda or of China, or of the one who has stopped his Argentine chariot / to see the sweetness of light in his eyes? / Or of the king of the Islands of Fragrant Roses, / or of the one who is sovereign of the clear diamonds, / or of the proud owner of the pearls of Hormuz?

The image of wealth and oriental luxury that the suitors in this poem evoke did not correspond, in my imagination, to the figure of the oil sheikhs; But the truth is that crude oil has filled the princes of that region with extraordinary wealth.

How high can the price of oil go and how can investors try to protect themselves from a possible rise in inflation?

Readers will remember the spectacular rise in gas and, to a lesser extent, oil after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when Brent surpassed $120 per barrel. In fact, this crude oil had already been climbing since the beginning of 2021: it went from trading around $40 to approaching $100, so the big rise occurred after the strong recovery of the economy once the pandemic was over, and not so much because of the war.

Although the Russian-Ukrainian conflict continues, unfortunately, from February 2022 to February 2026 the price of oil fell from 120 to 60 dollars per barrel. Many readers may no longer remember that in March 2008 Brent reached $145. At that time, some Goldman Sachs analysts predicted that it would reach 200, but after reaching that maximum, the price collapsed and by the end of that same year it was trading around $40.

To answer the question of how far oil can go, I will use one of the most cited reflections of John Maynard Keynes “About these issues there isn’t a scientific foundation on which to type any calculable chance no matter. We merely have no idea.” In this case it could be paraphrased like this: It is not possible to determine with certainty the probability of certain events; We simply have no way of knowing.

The enormous number of variables that influence the prices of raw materials, together with the different economic conditions in which the conflicts that affect them occur, make it very difficult to establish reliable probabilities about their future price range. This forces us to make decisions in an environment of uncertainty, where the most sensible thing is to diversify. Neither before was it advisable to excessively concentrate investments in artificial intelligence companies, nor is it now advisable to pivot sharply towards the energy sector.

It remains to answer the question of how investors can protect themselves against a possible rise in inflation. The classic assets to do so, as long as the horizon is long, are the stock market, gold and inflation-linked bonds.

Among them, one of the most traditional is gold. The golden metal has experienced a historic rally, reaching levels that just two years ago would have seemed unimaginable. Its all-time high was recorded in January 2026, exceeding $5,600 per ounce. Part of this behavior was explained by distrust of the dollar, but the price rose so much that, before the “Epic Fury” operation, it was already suffering a strong correction, reaching around $5,200 the previous Friday. At the time of writing, it is trading below this level, while the dollar has appreciated since the attack.

Once again, we encounter circumstances that create environments in which it is difficult to calculate reliable probabilities. After the inflation peak of 2021, many investors opted for inflation-linked bond funds, whose behavior is difficult to interpret for non-professionals. Therefore, I do not recommend funds of this type of bonds for an individual.

In fact, my main recommendation, whenever you have time, is to protect yourself with highly diversified stock funds, which offer coverage against inflation without assuming excessive risks due to the concentration of values, sectors or regions.