Oil opens the week with a new price surge, surpassing $105

BarcelonaOil prices continue their upward climb in the wake of the war in Iran. Brent crude, the European benchmark, rose more than 2% this morning, surpassing $105 a barrel, well above the $72 mark it held before the US and Israeli attack on Iran. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, the US benchmark, climbed 1.7% to $98.57 a barrel. In fact, on Monday, Brent traded above $106, but the price has since moderated to around $105. The price increase comes after US President Donald Trump warned on Sunday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) faces a "very bad future" if allies do not cooperate to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway for international oil trade that is currently blocked. The price surge occurs despite the International Energy Agency's (IEA) decision last week to release 400 million barrels of strategic reserves, the largest in its history, to help ease tensions in oil prices. Trump also lifted the embargo on Russian oil for one month, despite opposition from the European Union, in an effort to lower crude oil prices.

In this context, in the United States, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq indexes closed last Friday with declines, 0.26% in the former case and 0.93% in the latter. Meanwhile, the main Asian stock markets registered mixed performance this Monday. Japan's Nikkei closed down 0.1%, while South Korea's Kospi rose 1.1%. For its part, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index appreciated by 1.5%, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange recorded a decline of nearly 0.3%.

In Europe, the Spanish Ibex 35 stock market began trading this Monday with a 0.1% drop, which led it to maintain the psychological threshold of 17,000 points and stand at 17,041.9 points at 9:00 a.m. But by 10:00 AM, it had already fallen 0.49% and was below 17,000 points, specifically at 16,976.40 points.

The main European stock exchanges started the day in positive territory, with gains of 0.06% for Milan, 0.18% for Frankfurt, 0.17% for Paris, and 0.47% for London. However, by 10:00 AM, the trend had reversed, and only London remained in positive territory (+0.12%), while Milan fell 0.62%, Paris 0.36%, and Frankfurt 0.20%.