Oil just blew past $100 a barrel as Washington moves from warnings to warships, CNBC reports. US crude futures jumped nearly 8% to $104.20 a barrel and Brent rose about 7% to $101.86 after US Central Command announced it will shut down maritime traffic in and out of Iranian ports starting Monday morning, while allowing ships headed elsewhere to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The move follows the breakdown of negotiations in Pakistan aimed at ending the war, with Vice President JD Vance saying Iran wouldn't give a clear pledge to forgo nuclear weapons.
President Trump separately ordered the Navy to target any ship in international waters that has paid Iran to transit the strait, a chokepoint that previously carried about a fifth of the world's oil. Tanker flows there have already collapsed after earlier US and Israeli strikes on Iran, creating what CNBC describes as the biggest oil supply disruption on record. With limited US strikes reportedly under consideration and Tehran insisting it still "holds the key" to the strait, the standoff is deepening.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf responded to the blockade threat by warning that Americans would soon be "nostalgic for $4- to $5-per-gallon gas, CBS News reports. Indeed, USA Today reports that Trump himself warned Sunday that gas prices "could be the same or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same" by the time the midterm elections roll around. The US just saw the largest monthly spike in gas prices in recorded history, at 21.2%.
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