Crude oil surged over 7% on Monday after President Donald Trump announced a blockade of all vessels entering and exiting Iranian ports after ceasefire talks with Iran ended without an agreement over the weekend—reviving fears of a major disruption to global energy supplies.
Brent crude climbed to nearly $102 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) topped $104 per barrel. Exchange-traded funds tied directly to oil futures also moved higher, including the United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) and United States Brent Oil Fund (NYSE:BNO), which tend to react quickly to price swings and are often used by investors to capitalize on short-term moves.
What Happened?
Trump said in a post on social media platform Truth Social, "Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz."

"The market is now largely back to conditions before the ceasefire, except now the U.S. will block the remaining up to 2 million barrels per day Iranian linked flows through the Strait of Hormuz as well," said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee, per the Times of India report.
He added that oil and fuel prices could remain elevated through the November midterm elections, pointing to potential political fallout from the decision taken six weeks after the strike on Iran.
USO, BNO ETFs Surge
USO follows WTI futures prices while BNO tracks Brent futures. USO has $2 billion in assets under management and an expense ratio of 0.70%. It trades in an average daily volume of about 64 million over the past month. BNO, with an AUM of $896.1 million, exchanged about 10 million shares over the past month. It charges a steep annual fee of 1.14%.
USO and BNO are up about 6.3% and 7.5% in after-hours trading at the time of writing.
Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings indicate that the USO ETF has a Momentum score in the 95th percentile. It maintains a strong price trend in the short, medium and long term. The BNO ETF has a Momentum score in the 93rd percentile with a strong pricing trend in the short, medium and long term.
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