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Stocks and energy prices staged a remarkable reversal Monday afternoon after President Donald Trump told CBS News that the war in Iran was “very complete, pretty much.”
Trump repeated that message later in the day at a Florida press conference, where he said the U.S. is “achieving major strides toward completing our military objectives.”
“This was just an excursion into something that had to be done,” Trump said. “We’re getting very close to finishing that, too.”
After having soared as much as 32% overnight to $119 per barrel, the price of U.S. crude oil plunged around 5%, to around $86 per barrel by 4 p.m. ET. International Brent crude oil also dropped, by more than 3.5%, to less than $89 per barrel.
U.S. equities markets also sharply reversed. The S&P 500, which had fallen as much as 1.5%, ended the day higher by 0.83%. The Nasdaq Composite, which earlier tumbled as much as 1.4%, ended the day in the green by 1.38%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average clawed back a more than 880 point drop to wrap up the trading day higher by 239 points.
Still, the price of U.S. crude oil has risen more than 50% since the start of the year and more than 30% over the last five days.
As of Monday afternoon, the average price of U.S. retail gasoline nationwide had hit $3.49 a gallon, continuing its sharp march higher. Since the war began, the average price per gallon has risen more than 50 cents, according to the price-tracking service GasBuddy.
In Japan, the broad Nikkei 225 recorded its worst day since last April’s tariff-induced sell-off, tumbling 5.2%. The index also entered correction territory, which is when a stock or an index falls 10% or more from its most recent record high.
South Korea’s Kospi index also tumbled 6%, and at one point it was halted for 20 minutes on heavy selling. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 index closed down 0.6% as markets in Germany, France, Italy and Spain dropped around 1%.
Bonds, which earlier sold off, also finished the day higher. As a result, the 10-year U.S. government bond yield dipped to 4.10% and the 30-year bond yield dropped to 4.71%.
Natural gas prices also tumbled, with futures traded in New York falling 4% by 4 p.m. ET and futures traded in Europe pulling back from an earlier sharp rise to trade higher by only 5%.
Heating oil, which can be a proxy for jet fuel, also dropped by more than 8% after having traded higher by 23%.
Finance ministers of leading industrialized nations held a video conference Monday to discuss a potential joint release of oil reserves in a bid to ease skyrocketing prices. But they decided against a petroleum release, for now.
“We are not there yet,” France’s finance minister, Roland Lescure, told reporters in Brussels, adding that the group will “continue to monitor the situation very closely.”
“I want to be very clear on the fact that we are ready to take necessary and coordinated steps in order to stabilize markets,” he added.
The White House said it was also “in constant coordination with the relevant agencies on this important issue.”
“President Trump and his entire energy team have had a strong game plan to keep the energy markets stable well before Operation Epic Fury began, and they will continue to review all credible options,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.
She said, without sharing details of the plan, that “as the president said last night, this is short-term change in oil prices, which will drop dramatically once the objectives” of the Iran war are achieved.
A U.S. official separately told NBC News that Trump was reviewing a number of options to drive down prices, including restricting U.S. exports, intervening in the futures market and lifting some requirements of the Jones Act, which requires that domestic fuel be carried only on U.S.-flagged ships.
International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol also participated in the meeting, where he updated ministers about the state of energy markets, which “have deteriorated in recent days,” he said.
“In addition to the challenges of transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a substantial amount of oil production has been curtailed,” Birol said in a statement. “This is creating significant and growing risks for the market.”
European Union Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis also said late Monday that European ministers did not have an agreement to release stockpiles, either, but that they would continue to evaluate the situation.
“One of the options which is considered is … the release of oil reserves to supply, to provide more oil supply during this disruption,” he told reporters earlier in Brussels.
Several countries have trimmed oil output since the war started, including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and reportedly Saudi Arabia. Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company, did not reply to requests for comment.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which more than 20% of the world’s daily oil demand flows, remains essentially closed to tankers. Ships near the strait, off southern Iran, have reported receiving threats over radio transmissions. The British maritime trade agency has also reported multiple attacks on or near ships in the region.
Storage has also started to reach its capacity in the region.
“With export bottlenecks unresolved and storage continuing to tighten, a further acceleration in regional supply cuts appears increasingly likely in the coming days,” commodities analysts at JPMorgan Chase wrote Friday.
“By next Friday, we estimate that more than 4 [million barrels per day] of production will need to be curtailed.” Already, they said, about 2 million barrels per day have been cut.
So far, no country has fully shut down oil production, but analysts warn that could be next.
“If producers beyond Iraq and Kuwait are forced to curtail output, the ability to restore pre‑crisis supply quickly would become increasingly constrained,” analysts at Societé Generale said in a note to clients Monday morning. “Time is therefore critical: the longer disruptions persist, the greater the likelihood that what initially appear to be temporary outages evolve into more durable supply losses.”
“The UAE is likely the next producer at risk of shutting in output, potentially within the next five to seven days,” they wrote. “Qatar is also vulnerable.”
All four of those countries rank among the top five oil-producing countries in OPEC. Iran also makes the top five, but given U.S. sanctions, most of its oil ends up in China.
Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng plan to meet this week, according to multiple reports.
Steve Kopack is a senior reporter at NBC News covering business and the economy.
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