The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz crashes the price of oil

BarcelonaAfter Iran announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas prices have plummeted in the markets. Specifically, on Friday afternoon, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil – the benchmark in Europe – fell by more than 10% and stood at around 89 dollars. Futures for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude – the benchmark in the United States – stood at around 83 dollars, almost 12% less than on Thursday. At times during the conflict, the price of a barrel of Brent has approached 120 dollars. Despite the drop this Friday, the price of oil remains above the 72 dollars it stood at just before the attack by the United States and Israel on Iran.

For its part, natural gas futures on the TTF market, the benchmark in Europe, fell by more than 7% and stood at around 39 euros per megawatt-hour; it also fell by 8.26%, to 38.92 euros. Its peak during the conflict was reached on March 19, when the price stood at 61.8 euros.

As for the markets, after the stock exchanges opened the day with slight falls, following Iran's announcement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, they turned to positive territory, with rises of around 2%. Specifically, the Ibex-35 closed just below its historical highs. The Spanish stock market indicator rose by 2.18% this Friday. The Spanish selective closed the session at 18,484.5 points, after gaining 395 points. Since the beginning of the year, and despite the impact of the war, the index has appreciated by 6.8%.

This same optimism has been replicated in the rest of the European markets, led by the German DAX, which rose by 2.27%, accompanied by Paris (1.97%), Milan (1.75%), and London (0.73%). The 50 most important European companies (Euro Stoxx50) collectively rose by 2.1%.

In the foreign exchange market, the euro strengthened by 0.21% and remains above 1.18 dollars, at 1.1805, after rising throughout the morning to 1.1849 dollars. Across the Atlantic, on Wall Street, its main index, the Dow Jones, was up 1.96% at the close of European markets, followed by the Nasdaq (1.59%) and the S&P500 (1.21%).

The euphoria in the commodity and stock markets has erupted as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that the Strait of Hormuz will remain "fully open" until the end of the ceasefire with the United States, next Wednesday, as a result of the beginning of the truce in Lebanon. Despite this announcement, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, said that his country will maintain the naval blockade on Iran until an agreement is reached.

Although oil has not returned to pre-war levels, the euro has. The single currency has recovered its pre-war levels with a revaluation of 0.27% in one day. Thus, the exchange rate recovered the threshold of 1.18 dollars, a figure it had not reached since February 27, the day before the war began. Since the start of the war in the Middle East, the US dollar had appreciated strongly, reaching an exchange rate of 1.1411 dollars per euro on March 13, representing an adjustment of close to 3.3% in two weeks of conflict.

During the conflict, the dollar has behaved as the main safe-haven asset, which has driven its appreciation against the euro by increasing global demand. This movement contrasts with that recorded by other assets traditionally considered safe havens, such as gold, which, after rising in the early days of the war, later corrected by around 20%, falling from $5,170 per ounce on the day before the confrontation began to $4,100, which it marked as a low on March 23.

As specialized analysts have recurrently explained, this fall is largely due to the close link between gold and the dollar: when the US currency appreciates, the precious metal becomes relatively more expensive for investors operating in other currencies, which reduces its international demand and puts downward pressure on prices. In this way, the US dollar has concentrated a large part of investment flows in a context of high geopolitical uncertainty, and as confirmed by the economic advisor of Ossiam – a subsidiary of Natixis Investment Managers –, Patrick Artus, "only the dollar is acting – and has acted – as a safe-haven asset".

Indeed, after it was announced that the blockade of Hormuz would be lifted, the price of gold and silver resumed their upward trend, recovering to levels seen a month ago. The price of an ounce of gold rose by 1.71% to $4,888 shortly after the news broke, while silver surpassed $82.11, advancing by 4.37%. It is worth noting that both precious metals lost 6.75% and 11.75% of their value, respectively, since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East. Despite everything, they have accumulated a year-on-year increase of 46% and 149%. In the case of gold, its peak was $5,626.80, recorded on January 29, 2026, while the highest point for silver was $121.78, achieved during the same trading session.