Oil stocks and ETFs jumped in premarket trading. United States Brent Oil Fund LP rose 8%; United States Oil Fund LP and ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil rose 7%; Diamondback, Marathon Petroleum, Apache, and Devon rose 4%; ConocoPhillips, Occidental, Cheniere, Spdr S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF, Exxon Mobil, and Phillips 66 rose 3%; Valero, Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund, Vanguard Energy ETF, EOG Resources, Baker Hughes, Chevron, and Halliburton rose 2%; BP, Shell, and SLB rose 1%.
Oil prices surged on Monday as the U.S. moved to impose a blockade on Iranian shipping after the collapse of weekend peace talks.
The U.S. move, aimed at putting pressure on Tehran, leaves a fragile ceasefire hanging in the balance and no end in sight to the choke on Middle East energy exports - though the mood on trading floors leaned toward hoping for a resolution.
Brent crude futures were up 7.3% at $102 a barrel - a gain of more than 40% since the war shut navigation of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Wall Street Journal reported Trump and his advisers were weighing limited strikes on Iran, though there were no immediate reports of attacks in the Asia day.
Trump said on Sunday that the price of oil and gasoline may remain high into the midterm elections in the U.S. in November, a rare acknowledgement of the potential political fallout from the war.
