Oil prices rose near their highest levels in a month on Thursday after President Trump claimed he would level “tremendous economic consequences” on countries that did business with Iran.
Without naming countries or details on possible actions, Mr. Trump said on social media on Wednesday suggested he could target countries that buy Iranian oil. A U.S. Navy blockade has already cut off Iran’s seaborne oil exports.
High oil prices have fueled fears about inflation, with the costs of gasoline, diesel and other products derived from crude oil up sharply since the start of the war in Iran nearly six months ago. This anxiety has also been reflected in bond market volatility.
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was up more than 2 percent to nearly $94 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was around $86 a barrel.
Investors and analysts are focused on the continued disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is a vital trading route for oil and natural gas that normally carries as much as one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
How much the international benchmark costs
Notes: Data shows future contract prices for Brent crude oil. Gaps indicate nontrading hours. Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.
Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to a slight increase when stocks resume trading in the United States on Thursday.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600, a broad index that tracks the region’s largest companies, was little changed.
Stocks in Asia were broadly higher, carrying over a U.S. rally from the day before. The KOSPI index in South Korea surged 5.9 percent, while the Nikkei 225 in Japan jumped 1.4 percent.
How stocks are trading in the United States
The yields on U.S. government bonds rose on Thursday, as the effects of the Treasury Department’s latest effort to rein in borrowing costs began to fade.
The 10-year Treasury yield, a widely influential interest rate that underpins mortgages, business loans and many other types of debt, rose to 4.67 percent, erasing much of the decline in yields on the previous day, when the Treasury doubled the amount of debt it was authorized to buy back from investors in weekly operations.
Investors are worried about the war in Iran’s effect on inflation, large government deficits and rampant borrowing to finance artificial intelligence infrastructure, which have all put upward pressure on yields.