Global oil prices hovered around $114 a barrel, U.S. gasoline prices continued to climb and stocks fluctuated on Tuesday as investors assessed a fresh wave of attacks across the Persian Gulf.
President Trump has escalated his threats against Iran over its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran has rejected his demands as unreasonable. The owner of a Kuwaiti tanker loaded with oil said it had been hit in an Iranian attack near Dubai early Tuesday.
Oil prices remain firm.
-
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, traded flat, at around $114 a barrel. It settled at $112.78 on Monday, up 0.2 percent
-
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, slipped slightly, to around $103 a barrel. It settled at $102.88 a barrel on Monday, up 3.3 percent.
-
Investors and analysts are focused on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is a vital trading route for oil and natural gas that normally carries as much as one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Gas prices rise above $4 a gallon in the U.S.
-
U.S. gasoline prices rose again on Tuesday, jumping to a national average of just over $4 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. The increase has raised the cost for drivers by 35 percent since the war began.
-
Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.
-
Diesel prices have increased even more quickly and stood at $5.42 on Tuesday, up 44 percent since the start of the war.
Stocks rise in U.S. and Europe but fall in Asia.
-
Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to a solid increase when stocks resume trading in the United States on Tuesday, which would more than reverse a small decline the day before.
-
In Europe, stocks also posted gains. The Stoxx 600, a broad European index, moved nearly 1 percent higher.
-
Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas from the Middle East, plunged. The Nikkei 225 in Japan dropped 1.6 percent, and stocks in Korea fell 4.3 percent.
The post Oil and Gas Prices Continue to Rise in Choppy Trade appeared first on New York Times.
