Oil trades above $100 as Iran attacks more Gulf targets, while shares
are mixed
[March 16, 2026] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
BANGKOK (AP) — Crude oil stayed above $100 a barrel on Monday and Gulf
countries reported more attacks by Iran as the war entered its third
week, while share prices were mixed.
A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, was up 2.5% at
$105.70. It's climbed more than 40% since the war began.
U.S. benchmark crude gained 1.6% to $100.29 per barrel. It's up nearly
50% since the war began.
U.S. futures were buoyant, with the contract for the S&P 500 up 0.6%
while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX edged 0.1% lower to 23,423.51,
while the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.2% to 7,893.16. Britain's FTSE 100
inched up 0.2% to 10,276.43.
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 edged 0.1% lower to 53,751.15, while the
Kospi in South Korea climbed 1.1% to 5,549.85.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.5% to 25,834.02 after the Chinese
government reported stronger than forecast economic data for February.
The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.3%, however, to 4,084.79.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.4% to 8,583.40.
Taiwan's Taiex edged 0.2% lower, while India's Sensex was little
changed.
On Friday, Wall Street's losses deepened as the war again pushed prices
above $100 per barrel, ratcheting up inflationary pressure on the global
economy.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6%. The benchmark index is now down 3.1% so far this
year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite
finished 0.9% lower. Those indexes also ended the week with their third
straight weekly loss.
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.
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A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's
Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, March 13, 2026, in Tokyo.
(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
 Only handful of tankers have
reportedly passed through the strait.
“The truth is that at this point, much of the market is operating in
the fog,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a
commentary. “For context, the strait normally handles roughly 25 oil
and LNG tankers every single day.”
If the war continues to hamper the production and transportation of
oil from the Persian Gulf, it could cause a damaging surge in
inflation.
Members of the International Energy Agency are making a record 400
million barrels of oil available from emergency reserves, though it
appears to have done little to reassure markets.
Higher expectations for inflation complicate the Federal Reserve's
efforts to bring interest rates lower to help the economy. The U.S.
central bank is not expected to cut rates at its policy meeting this
week.
A new snapshot of consumer spending Friday shows inflation crept
higher in January, even before the Iran war caused oil and gas
prices to spike.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer prices rose
2.8% in January compared with a year earlier. But excluding volatile
food and energy, core prices rose 3.1%, the highest jump in nearly
two years.
Even so, consumers still lifted their spending at a solid 0.4% pace
in January, with their incomes rising at the same pace, according to
the report.
Wall Street also got an update on how U.S. economic growth fared in
the October-December quarter. The economy, hobbled by last fall’s
43-day government shutdown, grew at a sluggish 0.7% annual rate, a
downgrade from its initial estimate last month.
In other trading early Monday, the U.S. dollar slipped to 159.34
Japanese yen from 159.55 yen. The euro rose to $1.1441 from $1.1425.
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