Brent crude oil briefly tops $100 a barrel as Iran attacks on shipping
worsen supply concerns
[March 12, 2026] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
BANGKOK (AP) — The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil briefly topped
$100 a barrel early Thursday, just days after it spiked near $120 in the
latest jolts to financial markets and the global economy as a whole.
Oil prices initially shot more than 9% higher as supply concerns
worsened with Iranian attacks on commercial shipping around the Strait
of Hormuz. The U.S. campaign of airstrikes in Iran is now in its 13th
day.
U.S. benchmark crude oil jumped 4.5% to about $91 a barrel. Brent, the
international standard, was trading 5.3% higher at about $97 per barrel.
Iran has escalated its attacks aimed at generating enough global
economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end the war.
But there was no sign the conflict was subsiding.
Iran has targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations and
effectively stopped cargo traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz,
through which a fifth of all traded oil passes.
In response, the International Energy Agency agreed Wednesday to release
400 million barrels of oil, the largest volume of emergency oil reserves
in its history, in a bid to counter the war’s effects on energy markets.
The U.S. planned to release 172 million barrels of oil next week from
its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat steep prices.
The IEA’s announcement came a day after energy ministers from the Group
of Seven — the leading industrialized nations of Canada, the United
States, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and Britain — met in Paris to look
at ways to bring down prices.
But the continued strife and uncertainty have fueled speculation prices
could push still higher, and that pulled shares lower.
The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.4% while that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average was 0.5% lower.
Germany's DAX lost 0.4% to 23,533.60, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost
0.7% to 7,982.64. Britain's FTSE 100 sank 0.7% to 10,285.91.
During Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 1% to 54,452.96. In South
Korea, the Kospi lost 0.5% to 5,583.25, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave
up 0.7% to 25,716.76.
The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.1% to 4,129.10 and in Australia, the
S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.3% to 8,629.00.
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The New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York, Friday, March 6,
2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks were
little changed as the S&P 500 edged 0.1% lower for a second day of
modest moves following a wild stretch caused by the war with Iran.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6%, to its lowest level
this year, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%.
Since the start of the war, sharp moves for oil prices have
triggered swings up and down for financial markets worldwide,
sometimes by the hour. Oil prices briefly spiked to their highest
levels since 2022 this week because of the possibility that
production in the Middle East could be blocked for a long time,
which in turn raised worries about a surge of debilitating inflation
for the global economy.
In a report, Oxford Economics said “the swings in Brent crude oil
prices over the past several days are eye-catching and odds are
volatility will remain because of the absence of a timeline for when
the conflict will de-escalate and when the Strait of Hormuz, which
is effectively closed, will see traffic begin to recover.”
The level of volatility suggests that depending on news
developments, oil prices could spike as high as $140 per barrel, it
said.
A report released Wednesday showed U.S. consumers paid prices for
groceries, gasoline and other costs of living that were 2.4% higher
in February than a year earlier.
That's the same level as the month before and better than the 2.5%
that economists expected, but it remains above the Federal Reserve's
2% target and doesn’t include the spike in gasoline prices this
month due to the war.
High inflation combined with a stagnating economy would create a
worst-case scenario called “stagflation” that the Federal Reserve
has no good tools to fix. Stagflation fears are rising not just
because of higher oil prices but also because of weakness in hiring
by U.S. employers.
In other dealings early Thursday, the dollar fell to 158.84 Japanese
yen from 158.95 yen. The euro fell to $1.1553 from $1.1566.
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