Oil prices absolutely shot up to $116 a barrel, as reported by The Guardian, after President Trump made some pretty intense threats about Iran. He declared the US would “blow up” and “completely obliterate” Iranian electricity plants, oil wells, and its key export hub, Kharg Island, if a deal isn’t reached.
The international benchmark for oil, Brent crude, saw a 1.6% rise. This came right after President Trump posted on his platform Truth Social, reiterating that if Iran didn’t agree to a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the US would take further action.
He wrote, and this is a direct quote, “We will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched’ … This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror’.”
President Trump also went over the idea of seizing Kharg Island
Trump said, “To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.” He then added, “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options.”
Oil prices initially jumped by 2% to $116 in early trading on Monday, before settling back a bit to $114.42 a barrel. This isn’t just a small blip either; Brent crude is now looking at its biggest monthly gain ever, up by a massive 59% since the start of March. That beats the previous record of 46% set back in September 1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
Across the globe, stock markets reacted in a mixed bag. In Europe, things saw a slight uptick, with the European Stoxx 600 index climbing 0.7%. The UK’s FTSE 100 share index, which tracks blue-chip companies, rose 1%, primarily led by mining giants Rio Tinto and Glencore. Over on Wall Street, the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq all advanced by about 0.8%. Natural gas prices in Europe actually dipped a little, with Dutch month-ahead futures falling 0.9% to €53.69 a megawatt-hour.
Meanwhile, Asian economies, which are super reliant on oil and gas from the Gulf, saw their stock markets drop pretty sharply even before President Trump’s latest post. Japan’s Nikkei fell by 2.8%, while the South Korean Kospi dropped 3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed about 0.8%. Investors are clearly getting more and more nervous as the Middle East conflict escalates, especially with another 3,500 US troops arriving in the region and Houthi rebels in Yemen firing ballistic missiles at Israeli sites.
Published: Mar 30, 2026 03:45 pm