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President Donald Trump has doubled down on the U.S. war against Iran, spiking oil prices Thursday as traders prepare for a longer conflict that will exacerbate the already deep disruption to global energy supplies.
The oil market had hoped Trump would present a clear exit strategy during his national address Wednesday night. Instead, the president said the war will continue for weeks and vowed to hit the Islamic Republic “extremely hard.”
“With the conflict now expected to last at least into deep April, the barrel math becomes increasingly grim,” said Ryan McKay, senior commodity strategist at TD Securities, in a Thursday note to clients.
Nearly 1 billion barrels will be lost by the end of the month, including up to 600 million barrels of crude oil and roughly 350 million barrels of refined products like jet fuel, diesel and gasoline, McKay said. Every month the war drags on will see an additional combined loss of 450 million barrels, he said.
