Brent crude oil briefly tops $100 a barrel as Iran attacks on shipping worsen supply concerns

BANGKOK, March 12, (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 US campaign of airstrikes in Iran is now in its 13th day. US 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 US 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. On Wednesday, US 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.