U.S. gas prices crossed $4 a gallon on Tuesday for the first time since 2022, as Brent crude’s record 55% monthly gain sends shockwaves from the pump to the grocery aisle. With diesel at $5.45 and the Iran war entering its fifth week, the consumer spending squeeze is accelerating.
The Nasdaq dropped nearly 2.4% on Thursday, officially entering correction territory as Brent crude surged past $110 per barrel. Wall Street is staring down its fifth consecutive weekly loss, the longest streak since 2022, while consumer sentiment cratered to its lowest reading of 2026.
Trump’s Truth Social post celebrating rising oil prices as a national windfall is technically defensible from a producer standpoint and politically catastrophic from every other one. Here is what the statement gets right, what it gets badly wrong, and what it signals for markets, businesses, and the midterm elections.
Brent crude briefly hit $119 a barrel Monday as the US-Israel war on Iran enters its second week with no end in sight. The Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint for 20% of global oil supply — has ground to a near-complete halt, threatening $150 oil and a global inflation shock the world wasn’t ready for.