Oil prices rose more than 10% on Thursday after Trump vowed to bomb Iran “into the Stone Age”.
MANHATTAN (CN) – Oil prices rose and stocks fell this week after President Donald Trump’s well-timed speech on Wednesday failed to reassure investors that the US was close to any exit from the Middle East war, while Iran maintains its powerful stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important artery for oil shipments.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all fell this holiday-shortened week after Trump’s speech, which offered Americans no new measures to address economic concerns over higher fuel and energy costs, as the national average price for a gallon of gas hit $4 for the first time since 2022.
U.S. benchmark crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel on Thursday, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 7.8% to $109.03 a barrel.
Oil prices rose after Trump’s speech signaled that the US-Israeli war against Iran, now in its second month, will continue into April. The president vowed to bomb Iranian targets “over the next two to three weeks,” enough to send them “back to the Stone Age, where they belong.”
Earlier in the week, Trump struck allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the US war effort, telling them to “go get your oil” as Iran appeared to defy Trump’s threats of annihilation over closing the Strait of Hormuz.
Council on Foreign Relations President Michael Froman said Friday that US markets will feel the effects of the war’s oil and gas shock through weaker foreign demand, softer earnings and slower trade.
“The president is right that the United States is not that dependent on oil exported through the Straits, but as $4 a gallon at the pump shows, American oil products remain tied to global energy markets and will continue to trade in line with international standards,” Froman wrote. “We may not see shortages in domestic supply, but we will certainly see the price effects of a sustained market disruption.”
While the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61.07 points, or 0.1%, to 46,504.67 this week, the S&P 500 rebounded from earlier-week declines at the closing bell and posted its first weekly gain since the outbreak of war a month ago, rising 7.38 points, or 0.65%, to 6.65.
The Nasdaq composite similarly rebounded from volatility earlier in the week, ending the week up 38.23 points, or 0.2%, at 21,879.18.
Stock markets were closed on Friday for the Good Friday holiday, but futures were trading modestly by Friday morning. S&P 500 futures fell 0.3%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 0.2% and Nasdaq futures fell 0.4%.
The March jobs report found the US unemployment rate immersed to 4.3% from 4.4%, with US employers adding about 178,000 new jobs last month, recovering from a dismal February report of 133,000 job losses.
In a report last month, the National Federation of Independent Business found the small business jobs index fell 1.9 points to 101.6, with some small business owners resisting hiring in the current economic climate for more skilled workers.
“While small businesses are not hiring broadly, they continue to face difficulties related to the cost and quality of labor,” the federation’s chief economist, Bill Dunkelberg, said in a statement Thursday. “Despite the current increase in employment stagnation, economic conditions can change rapidly.”
Shares of Tesla Inc. — nearly 18% this year — fell another 2% this week after the company posted one of its bleakest sales quarters in years, falling short of Wall Street expectations. she fights to turn around its core business and fight against fierce overseas competition.
Chinese rival BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, has overtaken Tesla as the biggest electric maker, based on 2025 data.
Tesla co-founder Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX has reportedly filed preliminary paperwork to take the company public through an initial public offering of about $75 billion in stock, which would make Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
News of SpaceX’s IPO comes two weeks after a jury in San Francisco found Musk trolling Twitter investors in its $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform in 2022.
Subscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing arguments provides the latest on ongoing trials, major litigation and decisions in courts around the US and the world, while monthly Under the lights feeds legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
