The price of Brent Crude and other oil indexes surged Monday, with prices now firmly above the $100 mark as the Iran-Israel-U.S. conflict continues. Murban crude touched $120 on Monday, while Brent crude, WTI crude, and natural gas climbed to $108.4, $105.3, and $3.395, respectively.
Investors are now pricing in their growth expectations on the oil industry, which typically picks up in times of geopolitical conflict, but even more so now that the Strait of Hormuz is closed after the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) said no ships were to pass through last week.
⚠️ IRAN WARNS OIL COULD HIT $200
An IRGC official says a closure of the Strait of Hormuz could push crude prices to $200 per barrel if supply disruptions worsen.
The strait carries roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply, making it one of the most critical energy chokepoints.… pic.twitter.com/jQUF7fJj1q— Coin Headlines (@coinheadline) March 9, 2026
This is the first time oil prices have climbed above the $100 mark since 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine conflict impacted the supply of energy from Russia.
Around the same time, countries opening up from lockdowns after the coronavirus pandemic led to a surge in demand for energy and oil, and production constraints could not fill the gap in demand.
The same gaps in supply are being seen now, specifically in Iraq, whose production dropped by nearly 70% since the start of the war, according to Oilprice.com. Iraq was one of the first major oil producers to implement production due to the closure of the Hormuz Strait.
Bitcoin, gold, and silver hold steady, showing resilience in the current market
Bitcoin’s price held steady at $67,000 with a steady downward trend, but did not dip drastically in price in response to the conflict.
Over the past week, Bitcoin climbed by 1.29% while Ethereum rose by 1.79%. The fear and greed index, according to CoinMarketCap.com. The CMC fear and greed index was 18 at the time of writing, indicating that traders are still locked in deep fear about the markets. It has been measured at 15 over the past week.
Gold prices remained over $5,100 per ounce in trading, while Silver held steady at $84.42 per ounce, both metals dipping by single percentage points over the past 24 hours but still holding their weight at safe haven assets, up by 0.97% and 1.15% over the past month, according to Apmex.
Commenting on the outlook of safe-haven metals, Capital markets professional Jimeet Gandhi said, “The assets have gone down primarily due to lower expectations of interest rate cuts now due to the expected higher inflation. However, the events further underline the upward trajectory of precious metals in the near future,”
When asked if the U.S.-Iran conflict would play a part in safe-haven metals pricing, Gandhi said
“Yes it will. Governments will continue to de-dollarise and put their trust in safe-haven assets. However, this will take some bit of time to play out as forced deleveraging, speculation and sell off has to play out first.”