Global oil prices jumped and U.S. stock futures slid ahead of Monday’s market open after the weekend saw Iran-backed Houthi militants launch ballistic missiles at Israel and 3,500 additional U.S. troops arrive in the Middle East as the conflict rounded one month.
Advanced trades on the three major U.S. stock indexes were down as much as 0.5% at 10:20 p.m. ET Sunday. Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, surged 3% to more than $116 a barrel, the highest level since the conflict started, while U.S. crude climbed 3% to nearly $103 a barrel.
Investors have begun to question President Donald Trump’s ability to assuage markets without material progress on the ground.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that the U.S. “will make a deal” with Iran and that negotiations between the two countries are going well.
“I think we’ll make a deal with them, pretty sure, but it’s possible we won’t,” he told reporters. He later said a deal could come “soon.”
Trump also told reporters that Iran “gave us most of” a 15-point plan the U.S. sent Tehran to end the war, something Iran has yet to publicly confirm, and that 20 boatloads of oil — on top of 10 the previous week — will be passing through the Strait of Hormuz beginning Monday “out of a sign of respect.”
Trump separately told The Financial Times on Sunday that an Iran deal could be made “fairly quickly” and that he wants to “take the oil in Iran.”
Average U.S. gasoline prices hit $3.98 a gallon Sunday, according to AAA, the highest since the summer of 2022. A new Bloomberg News report said U.S. government officials and Wall Street analysts had begun considering the prospect that oil prices could surge to as much as $200 a barrel as the largest oil shock in decades continues to reverberate.
Patrick De Haan, chief analyst at Gas Buddy, estimates that later this week, U.S. drivers will have spent an additional $10 billion on gasoline since the conflict began one month ago.
