Nicole Lapin

And when you look at that history, you can see patterns in the way that these investments move up,

and down in response.

Understanding these patterns and being able to react quickly is an important way to protect your portfolio.

Here's what goes up.

Defense stocks are the most obvious.

And yes, they've moved dramatically recently.

At the time I'm recording this, Lockheed Martin is up about 3% compared to last week.

Northrop Grubman is up about 6%.

The iShares U.S.

aerospace and defense ETF has already surged 14% this year before the weekend, and that number is still climbing.

Energy stocks, too, surge alongside crude oil prices.

ExxonMobil and Chevron both gained about 4% on Monday.

ConocoPhillips was up more than 5%.

If you hold energy stocks or ETFs, this week has probably been a bright spot in an otherwise nerve-wracking portfolio check.

Another beneficiary is gold because it is a classic safe haven play and it's performing like one right now.

Spot gold hit over $5,400 per ounce on Monday, already up 22% year to date before the strikes even happened.

JP Morgan has raised its gold price target to $6,300 per ounce by December of 2026.

That means, just to take a step back and decode it for a second, that one of the world's biggest banks is making a bet on sustained instability.

Defense, energy and gold are usually the three assets that see the biggest upswing when the U.S.

is in conflict with the Middle East.