Oil prices top $90 as US-Iran clash hits Hormuz shipping

Global oil prices surged past $90 a barrel this week as renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran choked off shipments through the critical Strait of Hormuz, raising inflation risks and threatening to push U.S. gasoline prices higher. The international benchmark, Brent crude, reached $90.37 on Tuesday afternoon, its highest level since mid-June, following a weekend of escalating military strikes.

The immediate catalyst was the collapse of a fragile ceasefire and a series of reciprocal attacks. Over the weekend, U.S. forces conducted a ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iranian targets, which the U.S. Central Command said were aimed at degrading Iran's ability to attack commercial vessels. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed retaliatory strikes on U.S. bases in Jordan, Kuwait, and Syria, and said it had targeted vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC stated that two oil tankers were immobilized after attempting to transit the strait via a southern route near Oman.

This escalation has severely disrupted traffic through the narrow waterway, through which about one-fifth of the world's seaborne oil normally passes. Data indicated a sharp decline...