In a financial system built on the assumption that different assets move independently, oil prices and Treasury yields have begun marching in near-perfect unison — a correlation of 0.96, the tightest since 2019 — binding inflation fears to borrowing costs and leaving investors with fewer places to hide. The Middle East conflict has pushed crude higher while inflation anxiety has driven the 10-year yield briefly above 5%, and when these two forces pull in the same direction, the shock absorbers that normally cushion markets lose their function. What emerges is a chain reaction that touches ever