Nigeria, June 23 -- Rather than spiking Middle East geopolitics, global financial markets have been surprisingly resilient to recent United States strikes on Iran.

Far from inducing general panic or even large sell-offs, investor response has been muted, demonstrating confidence that fighting would be contained and not systemically risk-creating to global commerce or financial stability.

As Asian trade commenced, the MSCI World Index lost 0.12 percent, suggesting investors do not anticipate widespread global contagion. Safe-haven assets, however, sent out conflicting signals: the Japanese yen dropped 0.64 percent versus the U.S. currency, gold fell 0.23 percent to settle at $3,360 an ounce, and the U.S. dollar index gained 0.35 percent....