Hormuz or Bust: Oil Hits $105 and the Whole Market Is Holding Its Breath
Iran threatens to close the world's most important oil chokepoint and social sentiment is somewhere between 'buy energy' and 'buy a bunker'
Ticker Ratings
Brent crude is trading around $105 per barrel and the vibe on every financial forum right now is the investing equivalent of watching someone play Jenga with the global energy supply. Iran's Revolutionary Guards have threatened to completely close the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world's oil flows — if Trump follows through on threats to Iranian energy infrastructure. Cool, totally normal Monday.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg Surveillance's Wei Li over at BlackRock is out here calmly recommending investors 'flatten directional exposure,' which is Wall Street for 'nobody actually knows what happens next, so maybe don't go full yolo.' The dollar is catching haven flows, Asia shares are sliding, and UK PM Starmer is calling emergency economy meetings. Trump, for his part, is calling it a win and suggesting Iran offered a significant 'gift' involving oil and gas — a detail that sent Reddit threads into full detective mode.
The $BRK.B crowd is sitting quietly in their energy positions while the rest of us refresh Reuters every four minutes — and honestly, that's the most coherent investment strategy on the board right now.