“Of all the possible Middle East scenarios, 🔥the current state of play is one of the worst for the global economy,”
says the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s head of global economics, Joseph Capurso.
He added: 💥“We expect the situation to escalate before it de-escalates.
“Iran’s leadership and military capabilities have been significantly degraded.
However, what is unknown is their intent and capability to block the #strait of #Hormuz that would ⚡️sharply push up oil and gas prices.”
However, investors have so far remained relatively sanguine about other potential knock-on effects, reflecting a broad opinion that the disruptions to oil supplies will follow the script of recent years and prove short-lived.
The international oil benchmark
#Brent #crude, jumped by as much as 13% to reach $US 81.57 a barrel on Monday morning
– the highest in more than a year
– before easing to just shy of $US 77.53 by the afternoon to be up 6.4% on last week.
Asian sharemarkets also recovered from steep early losses
-- but still traded 1.5% down,
while Australian stocks finished Monday’s session marginally higher as traders jumped into goldminers and LNG exporters.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/02/iran-strait-hormuz-oil-global-prices-cost-of-living?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other