U.S. markets climbed into positive territory early Monday and the price of oil dipped but remained elevated at around $100 a barrel as the Iran war entered its third week.
Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.6% while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.4%. Nasdaq futures rose 0.8%.
U.S. benchmark crude fell 1.5% to $97.21 per barrel. It’s up about 45% since the war began. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, ticked up a fraction of a percent to $103.35. It’s climbed more than 40% since the war began.
Since being attacked by the United States and Israel more than two weeks ago, Iran has been regularly hitting Israel, American bases and its Gulf Arab neighbors’ energy infrastructure with drones and missiles. It has also retaliated by effectively stopping cargo traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil typically sails. That has oil producers cutting production because their crude has nowhere to go.
In just over a week since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, more than 12 million barrels of oil equivalent per day have been taken offline, according to independent research firm Rystad Energy.