Brent crude rises above $113, its highest since early May, after attacks in Saudi Arabia and on Gulf tankers; gold falls

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose about 3% on Thursday 22 October to above $112 a barrel, the first time it has reached that level since 18 May, the Guardian reported. US West Texas Intermediate crude traded above $100 a barrel, according to Yahoo Finance. At midday in London, Brent was at $111.85, up $3.05 or 2.8%, the Guardian said.

Later in the session Brent reached $113.40, its highest level since 5 May, and was up 4% at $113.25 as of about 6:10pm GMT, while WTI was up 3% at $100.06, CNBC reported.

On Wednesday, December Brent settled up 3 cents at $108.82 a barrel and December WTI fell 67 cents to $97.15, according to Xinhua.

The Guardian reported that Yemen’s Houthis struck targets in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, with two people killed at an airport in Dammam and two killed in a drone attack on an oilfield. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said four vessels involved in what it called “illegal” oil transfers in the northern Gulf were hit, and that three more struck mines west of the Strait of Hormuz. These claims could not be independently confirmed.

US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Iran was “making up fake hits, mines, and everything else” to raise oil prices before the US midterm elections, CoinDesk reported. Yahoo Finance cited a New York Times report that the US and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed attacks on Iran after the 3 November elections; Trump has said he will not attack Iran before the midterms. Asked about Iran late on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that “something one way or the other” would “happen fairly soon”, CNBC reported.

Spot gold fell 1.1% to $4,094.90 an ounce by 3:33am GMT, its lowest since 14 October, Reuters reported, and later traded about 2% lower at $4,063, according to the Guardian. Kelvin Wong of OANDA told Reuters that higher oil prices could raise inflation expectations and the likelihood of higher interest rates.

For Wednesday’s trading, see our earlier report.