Week of Middle East Conflict Pushes Oil Prices Higher
Fears of a spiraling Middle East war put Wall Street in a holding pattern this week, with oil prices grinding higher and choppy stock trading leaving major U.S. indexes little changed.
Brent crude futures, the international pricing benchmark, closed Friday at $77.01 a barrel, an 11% jump since Israel launched a ferocious air campaign against Iran. Traders feared a worst-case scenario in which Tehran could shock the global economy by cutting off ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for oil and gas supplies.
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'The national security concerns and vulnerabilities are still there, and they have not gone away. I would argue they've almost become more enhanced in many ways.' But Trump's extension of the TikTok law largely boxed out Republicans in both chambers who have shown little inclination — beyond stern words — to prevent him from making these postponements almost routine. Many GOP lawmakers saw themselves as granting the president space to cut a promised deal while the White House deals with urgent priorities, like trade negotiations and the Israel-Iran conflict. 'In light of everything going on, I think he did the right thing,' Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a China hawk who voted for the ban, told POLITICO of Trump. 'I have concerns about all kinds of things — that [the extension] is on the list — but it's not at the top of the list.' 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