Crude oil jumped past $103 per barrel, gaining 3.42% in the wake of the speech by the U.S. President Donald Trump on late Wednesday with Brent crude climbed 4.15% to $105.35 and WTI rose 3.42% to $103.54 a barrel. Gasoline rallied 4.10% to $3.22, and heating oil led the pack with a striking 6.17% gain to $4.31 — a clear signal that traders are pricing in prolonged supply disruption across the region.
The move in commodities was a direct reaction to the President’s tone. Investors had widely anticipated a measured address, perhaps laying groundwork for negotiations. Instead, Trump doubled down. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” he declared. “We’re going to bring them back to the stone age, where they belong.”
In his address, Trump outlined several consequential positions for global energy markets: the war would continue for another two to three weeks; U.S. strikes on Iranian power generation infrastructure remain firmly on the table if no deal is reached; and Iran’s military capacity has been severely degraded — its navy “gone” and air force “in ruins.”
On energy security, the President struck a notably isolationist tone. He stated that the United States imports almost no oil through the Strait of Hormuz and that nations dependent on that passage — particularly China, which he claimed sources roughly 90% of its oil through the strait — should bear full responsibility for securing it themselves. “They should be policing their own strait,” Trump said, strongly hinting at an eventual U.S. withdrawal from the region once military objectives are met.
Crucially, Trump noted that Iranian oil infrastructure has deliberately been spared — for now. “We have not hit their oil, even though it’s the easiest target,” he warned, leaving the door open to strikes that could further tighten global supply and send prices even higher.
