New York October 7 2024: Oil prices rose more than 3% on Monday, with Brent surpassing $80 per barrel for the first time since August, as the increased risk of a region-wide Middle East war jolted investors out of record bearish positions amassed last month.
Brent crude futures rose by $2.47, or 3.2%, to $80.52 per barrel by 12:23 p.m. ET [1623 GMT]. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose by $2.49, or 3.4%, to $76.87 per barrel. Last week, Brent rose more than 8% and WTI advanced by more than 9% week-on-week, the most in more than a year.
Rockets fired by Iran-backed Hezbollah hit Israel’s third-largest city, Haifa, early on Monday. A surface-to-surface missile from Yemen at central Israel on Monday was intercepted, the Israeli military said.
Israel, meanwhile, looked poised to expand ground incursions into southern Lebanon on the first anniversary of the Gaza war that has spread conflict across the Middle East.
“There is growing concern that (the) conflict may continue to escalate – not only putting Iran’s 3.4 mmbopd (million barrels of oil per day) of production at risk – but creating further disruptions to regional supply,” analysts at Tudor, Pickering and Holt wrote on Monday.
