Oil prices soar

The oil price surge is hammering markets. Despite the makeshift solution the G7 is considering to halt rising prices, falling production capacity is taking its toll.

Here we are. For the first time since the war in Ukraine (2022), oil prices have broken above the symbolic $100 per barrel threshold. A “very small price to pay” for neutralizing the Iranian nuclear threat according to Trump, but already a major impact on markets.

On the energy front, Iranian oil infrastructure has been hit for the first time since the conflict began, sending thick black smoke billowing over Tehran. It’s a powerful image whose media impact likely contributed to the high we saw in oil prices.

Geopolitically, the situation looks just as grim with the announcement of Iran’s new leader who is none other than the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Mojtaba Khamenei.

After losing his father, mother, and wife in the Israeli-American strikes, it’s easier to imagine a Mojtaba Khamenei thirsty for revenge than a new leader ready to tone things down.

Amid this flood of bad news, the market is still trying to cling to hopes that G7 members will decide to tap their strategic reserves to release 400 million barrels to counter the surge in crude prices.