Brent Nears $100 as Iran-US Strikes Escalate in Gulf — SkimNews
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- Brent crude rallied to $99.49 a barrel (highest since late June) with U.S. WTI at $94.63, gaining for a fourth straight session as the Iran-US conflict drove prices within reach of $100.
- Houthis struck several Saudi cities on Tuesday while U.S. forces hit multiple Iranian oil tankers and Iran struck a U.S. base in Jordan, broadening the war to a key Gulf U.S. ally.
- The Iran war is generating inflationary pressures that markets expect to trigger an ECB rate hike on Thursday and a near-even-odds Fed hike or hold next Wednesday, with U.S. CPI data due Friday as the key catalyst.
- The yen climbed to 153.66 per dollar near Tuesday's seven-month high of 152.89, up roughly 4% over five sessions, as traders unwound short positions on hawkish Bank of Japan rate-hike bets.
- Asian equities traded subdued on inflation worries — Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.6% and Sydney slipped 0.3% — though chip and AI rebounds lifted Japan's Nikkei (+0.6%) and South Korea's KOSPI (+1.6%).
- Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston called Brent "one of the clearest real-time signals for sentiment" and said $100 oil "now feels like a highly achievable level."
Why it matters: Oil at $99.49 forces the ECB, Fed, and BOJ to weigh inflation against growth within the same week, with Friday's U.S. CPI print as the hinge. For consumers and businesses, an energy shock layered onto tightening monetary policy means higher borrowing costs and fuel prices arriving simultaneously — a stagflationary cocktail markets haven't priced in since June.
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