Oil Just Rocketed 13% and It’s Not Slowing Down

Oil prices exploded 13% Thursday morning after President Trump’s national address made it clear: this isn’t winding down anytime soon. West Texas Intermediate crude hit $113 a barrel, while Brent crude jumped to $109.

The catalyst? Trump said the U.S. will “hit Iran extremely hard” over the next two to three weeks. Markets were hoping for an exit plan. Instead, they got escalation. The Strait of Hormuz — which used to handle a fifth of the world’s oil — is effectively shut down, and Trump made it clear that reopening it is Iran’s problem to solve, not America’s.

Here’s what matters for traders: this isn’t a temporary spike. Traffic through the Strait won’t resume anytime soon, and oil analysts are pricing in sustained triple-digit crude. Energy stocks are the obvious play here, but don’t sleep on inflation hedges. Higher oil means higher input costs across the board, which could reignite the inflation trade just when the Fed thought they had it under control.

One wrinkle: Trump claimed Iran asked for a ceasefire (Iran denies this). If talks actually materialize, oil could reverse hard. But until the Strait reopens, this is the new normal. Position accordingly.