Sabri Beneshour

And in New York, I'm Sabri Beneshour with the Marketplace Morning Report.

From APM American Public Media.

What war in the Middle East has to do with mortgage rates.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshour, in for David Brancaccio.

Mortgage rates had recently fallen to under 6%, and then the U.S.

and Israel attacked Iran.

Mortgage rates proceeded to jump above 6%.

Coincidence?

That is not.

A threatened oil market has already started to push up gas prices, which could translate into higher inflation, which mortgage lenders have to factor in.

And so mortgage rates went up.

Marketplace's Samantha Fields has more on how waves from a war a half a world away are landing on the shores of the U.S.

housing market.

President Trump is trying to contain the impact of the war on oil prices by offering military protection to ships traveling through the Persian Gulf and offering U.S.

government insurance when private insurers are dropping coverage.

Oil prices did actually fall after that announcement yesterday.

Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzer has that.

The federal corporate tax rate is allegedly 21%, but a lot of big companies like Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Tesla actually pay much less than that.

This year, these companies collectively paid 4.9%, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

This is not new, but changes from the Republican tax and spending law signed last summer may help these companies get even bigger tax breaks.