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Questions & Help Mar 17, 2026 at 1:14 PM

Oil prices jump as Iran warns Strait of Hormuz ‘cannot be the same’ | CNN Business

Posted by nicktheironblade

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/17/business/oil-prices-strait-iran-attacks-intl
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TimothyMimeslayer Mar 17, 2026 +456
And the stock market is going up, make it make sense.
456
Sic_Semper_Dumbasses Mar 17, 2026 +334
Donald Trump was actually honest about this thing surprisingly. He made it clear that when the price of oil goes up "we" make more money. And of course he was not talking about all americans, but rather all Americans that actually matter to him. Namely he and his billionaire friends.
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moosehunter87 Mar 17, 2026 +93
They aren't friends, they just want more money.
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Sic_Semper_Dumbasses Mar 17, 2026 +29
Yeah, friend isn't the right word. I guess it would be better to say that they are his class. They are the only people he can remotely relate to because they are the only people remotely like him.
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Strong-Log-7095 Mar 17, 2026 +14
TO people who only define life by money and power, people who give you money and power are your friends by definition. That's why so many of these billionaires work with objectively and well-known perverts and monsters. Normal people would never enter into a business arrangement with Jeffrey Epstein let alone socialize with him. If a rich guy suddenly burst into my office and offered me 20 million dollars to be his financial advisor (my career) I wouldn't hesitate to say no if I found out he was a known pdf. No money is worth that to me, I do just fine with my (mostly) law abiding clients. But to people like Scott Bessent and Donald Trump, its the money that defines the friendship. This guy is richer than that guy, so he's a better friend. It really is that simple. Early in my career I worked for a very wealthy man who was constantly introducing me to his rich friends. He would always talk about how smart and hard working and borderline genius they were. "This guy is the CEO of a billion dollar whatever, he's a genius" kind of thing. Whenever I'd meet these people I'd always laugh at how dumb they were. They were polished for sure, and educated enough to perform well in social settings. But there was nothing behind the eyes. One guy didn't get it when I made a joke about the economy (this was in 2008). He had zero idea that people were struggling and that the root of the problem was in the housing industry. Just completely oblivious. This kind of person would not be my "friend." But he was my boss's friend for sure. And my boss was a smart well rounded guy too. He could have had better people as friends, but he only wanted rich people as friends. Its pathological with them. Rich people are more discriminatory against poor people than they are against any single race or religion.
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badabingbadabang Mar 18, 2026 +1
His fellow paedos
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awwc Mar 18, 2026 +1
Capitalistically aligned
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logicom Mar 17, 2026 +17
Let's not forget that the barrels of oil being released from the strategic reserve are being given away with just a promise to give back at some point in the future. Art of the deal!
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richhomiekod Mar 17, 2026 +16
Friendly reminder to all that the stock market is not the economy. It is not indicative of your life being better or things being cheaper. A stock price goes higher if that company lays off workers, as there's now less expenses. The stock market is only indicative of how much money the rich has. The top 10% owns over 90% of the stock market.
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SurinamPam Mar 17, 2026 +1
What’s this “we” stuff?
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alexander1701 Mar 17, 2026 +33
The $1b/day they're spending goes straight into the accounts of people who use it to buy stocks. Basically war is a way the public's credit is laundered to the benefit of the wealthy.
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thegoodnamesrgone123 Mar 17, 2026 +22
It's a rigged game. If the market crashes Trump loses his grip on a large section of MAGA. That can't happen so the market goes up. If a Democrat was in charge shit would be in free fall now.
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Dreurmimker Mar 17, 2026 +41
Don’t get lost in the daily fluctuations in the overall trend… But also, notice that oil companies stocks are up for some reason…
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noobtastic31373 Mar 17, 2026 +30
When scarcity increases the market price of your product without your costs increasing, you end up with higher profit margins.
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SusBoiSlime Mar 17, 2026 +40
The stock marks is fully controlled by interest groups that have decided to not let it crash yet. The truly rich that own everything will let it fall when they decide and then let it rise when they decide. There’s no such thing as a free market or fundamentals.
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hmnahmna1 Mar 17, 2026 +11
I actually think it's the opposite problem. There are so many passive index investors now - full disclosure, I'm one of them - that the sheer volume props up the market. You can look at total assets under management by Vanguard and Blackrock and get a pretty good idea. My 401k contributions hit every paycheck regardless of geopolitics or other economic considerations.
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Krewtan Mar 17, 2026 +14
The AI bubble will have to pop at some point. It's estimated that 20-40% of "growth" in the GDP last year is related to AI and datacenters. It's just companies pouring the same money in one another's pockets and they aren't all going to be profitable. One day they're gonna have to deal the cards and pick winners and losers, and it's going to get real ugly.
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rickylancaster Mar 18, 2026
But if it’s gonna replace workers and take their jobs, it will be profitable and the investment pays off, no?
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Krewtan Mar 18, 2026 +1
Do you think all the investments in all the companies are going to pay off? I really doubt it. There's going to be a clear w***** and maybe someone else with a little market share. They're dumping an insane amount of money into all these companies and they aren't all going to work out. 
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BooBrew32 Mar 17, 2026 +1
See also: the COVID crash that conveniently happened months after we realized it was a problem
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PineapplePizza99 Mar 17, 2026 +2
The war was priced in, it wasn't out of nowhere 
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Captainbuttram Mar 17, 2026 +2
K shaped economy.
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Ancient_Contact4181 Mar 17, 2026 +1
Calls it is
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pete_moss Mar 17, 2026 +1
Asia and Europe are more dependant on Gulf oil so money might move into the US. It sucks but given the US's relative energy independence it might get off easier economically despite kicking the whole thing off.
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fiero-fire Mar 17, 2026 +1
The rich people and companies make money either way
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Antoak Mar 18, 2026 +1
The stock market is where the 1% keeps a huge percentage of their assets. The 1% is making more money than ever. Even if the bottom 50% stops buying stocks, the prices will still be driven up by the 1% bidding against each other. Also inflation affects stock prices too, so "number goes up" doesn't necessarily reflect a healthy economy.
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trevor426 Mar 17, 2026 +1
Gains in one industry (oil/energy) offset losses in other industries (tech/finance).
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TheCheeseGod Mar 17, 2026 +1
Inflation is coming
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IncidentSome4403 Mar 17, 2026 +1
Today sure. But we could very well still be in the beginning of a downtrend. Even the worst drawdowns still have green days. It’s better not to make assumptions based off just one day.
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dMestra Mar 17, 2026 -1
Bro fussing over a half of a % change on the day lol
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Its_pipo Mar 17, 2026 +317
Every time this happens the gas station prices spike within 24 hours but mysteriously take weeks to come back down.
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mmiski Mar 17, 2026 +115
Yep. Gotta love how news articles go through mental gymnastics trying to explain how oil prices take a while for them to come down when barrel prices plummet. But of course when something happens to raise them, they magically spike overnight at lightning pace. Seems to me like they take any opportunity to price gouge consumers.
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muftak3 Mar 17, 2026 +33
I always question that too. 3 months to turn oil to gas. Gas at the pumps has been there at least a week. Yet prices in Las Vegas Costco have jumped a $1 since this all started.
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person1234man Mar 17, 2026 -13
I was pretty curious as to why this happens so I did some digging. below is the answer. Economists call this phenomenon "Rockets and Feathers"—prices shoot up like rockets but float down like feathers. You are essentially correct that the rapid increase is driven by replacement cost pricing, but several other factors slow the descent. Why Prices Rise Quickly (The Rocket) Replacement Costs: Gas stations must pay for their next shipment at the current market rate. If oil prices jump, the station raises prices immediately to ensure they have enough cash to buy the next (more expensive) tanker of fuel. Thin Margins: Most stations make only a few cents per gallon after expenses. They cannot afford to sell their current inventory at "old" prices if the replacement fuel will cost them more than they just made. Why Prices Fall Slowly (The Feather) Consumer Behavior: When prices are rising, drivers actively hunt for the cheapest station. When prices start to drop, drivers feel "relieved" and shop around less, giving stations less incentive to cut prices aggressively to compete. Recouping Losses: Stations often lose money or break even when oil prices spike because they can't raise retail prices fast enough to keep up with the wholesale market. They use the slow descent to "make up" those lost margins. Inventory Lag: A station that bought a expensive load of fuel just before oil prices dropped will try to sell all of it at the higher price before lowering their sign to avoid taking a direct loss
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ExcitedForNothing Mar 17, 2026 +7
>so I did some digging Right, thanks ChatGPT
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BarnesTheNobleman Mar 17, 2026 +10
That’s a lot of words to say corps are greedy
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nikolai_470000 Mar 17, 2026 +6
Well that’s unnecessarily reductive. I’m all for attacking greedy corporations but… shouldn’t we at least *try* to understand the actual economics behind it rather than oversimplify it to the point it loses all meaning? Kinda wild how people are downvoting them for… giving a correct answer after someone literally asked for an explanation? Do better people, come on.
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kansei7 Mar 17, 2026 +13
kinda wild you assume people are downvoting for any reason other than being tired of people being like "i did some research" and that research is they copy/pasted a wall of slop text from a chatbot.
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nikolai_470000 Mar 18, 2026 -1
What’s the issue? That phrase is that triggering to you? At least in the original version, before the edit, they made a disclaimer that it was AI for transparency’s sake. You didn’t have to read it after that, or say anything. It was a good enough output that it could be informative to other people who also wanted to know the answer to that question. I don’t think the guy who decided to share what seemed to be good output should get bullied for trying to be helpful and propagate reasonably good info to others. That’s the whole purpose of these forums, and comments like that can sometimes be counterproductive to that purpose, no? If you hate the LLM answer format so much that you are hasty to mistreat others who use it (even with good intentions), there is something wrong with you. And I say that as someone who also hates AI. Like chill out y’all. It’s like a hive mind of middle school bullies all mindlessly piling onto the weird kid for doing something awkward. Give it a rest, it’s unbecoming behavior, truly. We all f****** hate AI, but that doesn’t mean we should take out that hatred on other normal people just for putting it on our screens. That’s the wild f****** take here buddy.
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person1234man Mar 17, 2026 -5
Well I'm getting way less down votes since editing it and removing the part where I said that I asked the ai. I guess f*** me for using a tool
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Tzayad Mar 17, 2026 +9
>I guess f*** me for using a tool Absolutely yes. AI is garbage.
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BarnesTheNobleman Mar 17, 2026 +3
For the record, I didn’t vote on his comment up or down. Additionally, explanation is not a justification - I fully understand his explanation I just don’t think it justifies their actions.
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Jensbert Mar 17, 2026 +4
There'll be a new law soon in Germany. Oil companies need to justify and explain a planned price hike. That'll be interesting how they justify it...
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Alagore Mar 18, 2026 +2
Chances are, they'll be able to justify it pretty easily.
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Alagore Mar 18, 2026 +2
Because they need to sell their current stock of fuel at a price that allows them to buy their next stock of fuel, and their margins on fuel are extremely thin. It's not mental gymnastics, it's actually pretty simple.
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UpDownLeftRightABLoL Mar 19, 2026 +1
It's called taking advantage of a crisis, every crisis is an opportunity. Now crisis are just manufacturered.
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TimothyMimeslayer Mar 17, 2026 +21
Reading online, it looks like its because gas stations increase prices immediately so they can afford the next delivery of gas which will be more expensive.
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thefastslow Mar 17, 2026 +6
Gasoline is pretty low margin for those gas stations, they make most of their money from you buying snacks.
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Adultery Mar 17, 2026 +2
Gasoline is a good loss leader for gas stations. I don’t think I’d go to them otherwise.
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Stocky_Platypus Mar 17, 2026 +16
Just like the airline prices and extra charges for luggage, those were just due to short term oil increases during the George Bush Jr presidency. Come to think about it, every Republican president has started wars or some sort of BS in the middle east to increase oil costs....strange.
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zffjk Mar 17, 2026 +3
And then they “slam” the liberal trying to mop up the diarrhea diaper disaster they left on the floor for taking too long or not doing a good enough job.
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SimianWriter Mar 17, 2026 +4
This is why you don't vote in unstable people.  The economy is like a road with a lot of traffic. When the road is clearly visible, clean and well maintained everyone can zip along at a good pace. Then some jack ass hits the brakes and causes everyone behind to do the same. Eventually, people stop riding the bumper of the person in front of them and jamming on the brakes at the last moment every time. An experienced person will start to slow down and leave some space. Then when the person in front jams on their brakes, they just slow down a bit and hopefully just use up some of that gap space they created. It takes longer short term but allows for a more predictable experience for everyone behind them and eventually everyone will get back to working at full speed without causing more issues.  This is the equivalent of a company front loading risks with extra cash so that they don't have to react drastically every time something happens. If something like a plague happens they can ride out for a bit with the extra cash on hand. That's how I would describe it nicely. The other perspective would be that every company deals with crisis by hoarding resources in case they need to use it later. Trump had been causing crisis after crisis so all a company can do is hoard, hoard, hoard and try to ride it out. We all get screwed in the short and long term by instability at the top.  Until we have Fusion running, the oil industry is what we have to deal with. They also use the same playbook.
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howdudo Mar 17, 2026 +3
Well. Expect it to take 3 - 5 years this time even if it reopens. They'll have to rebuild a lot of refineries and storage tanks.
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GirlNumber20 Mar 17, 2026 +2
There's actually a term for that: "rocket up, feather down." Prices take off like a rocket but fall back down like a feather.
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Euler007 Mar 17, 2026 +2
I'm sure that's how you feel but I'm not really seeing it in the data : [https://www.gasbuddy.com/charts](https://www.gasbuddy.com/charts)
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hoppertn Mar 17, 2026 +1
Friend, I hate to be the one to tell you but the price isn’t coming down in weeks.
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spudmarsupial Mar 17, 2026 -2
Come back down? You think that's going to happen? Reminds me of the 90s when whenever war or peace broke out in some part of the Middle East gas prices went up. Never down. It's pure profit taking.
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Toaster_bath13 Mar 17, 2026 +1
Gas averaged at $1.30 for the entirety on the 90s. We also didnt get into any wars then.
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SilverIdaten Mar 17, 2026 +57
Thanks for nothing Trump voters, hypocrites don’t care about high gas prices now.
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Illustrious_Rope8332 Mar 17, 2026 +2
Thank you, Joe Biden, for not giving Democrats a chance to nominate a viable alternative to Trump.
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mrgmzc Mar 18, 2026 +19
Nah, Kamala was a viable option, it was literally just voting against the evil spawn of Satan, and you Americans could not even do that. even worse when you had four years already of knowing what he was And now the rest of us have to suffer because of your stupidity and laziness, thanks for nothing *Royal you, not you personally
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NightWriter500 Mar 18, 2026 +7
Exactly, anyone that needed to be sold on voting against an actual fascist felon who ran in a platform of overthrowing the country deserves every single piece of what they get. But these aren’t serious people. They’re not even real. Every bullshit account on here that tells you “I can’t vote for a democrat unless they’re perfect, and we’ll never get that!” is fake. Don’t fall for it.
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carnage123 Mar 18, 2026 +4
Thank you Joe Biden for not holding any of these assholes accountable
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hadoken12357 Mar 17, 2026 +61
It is funny watching Trump beg the world for help.
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2cats2hats Mar 17, 2026 +28
Also sad and frustrating. Like watching a bully kid light a fire in their parent's barn for fun and now it's on fire and they can't put it out alone.
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twitchtvbevildre Mar 17, 2026 -22
i dont find it funny at all, if he had not been a complete ass hat to our allies they would 100% be bombing iran with us.
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8ackwoods Mar 17, 2026 +19
I actually don't think they would be at all
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Malaix Mar 17, 2026 +4
Yeah Iran is different. Especially since part of his ass hat-ness is that he attacked Iran basically unprovoked. But the strait of Homuz math would have been the same either way. And everyone would get the ick about pissing off Iran and starting this quigmire.
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supercali45 Mar 17, 2026 +24
Why are stocks just holding?
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aflyingsquanch Mar 17, 2026 +94
Because the market is basically gamblers speculating and it is completely divorced from reality and has been for a long time.
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HunterLionheart Mar 17, 2026 +10
Ding ding ding. It's literally just gambling with better odds.
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Prestigious_Load1699 Mar 18, 2026 +1
Traders don’t want to panic-sell and realize they lost money. So, the stock market tends to be stable. This isn’t rocket science.
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Theduckisback Mar 17, 2026 +1
"The market has already priced it in bro" I say as I YOLO Oil shorts based on president Stupid's latest tweet.
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Malaix Mar 17, 2026 +28
Our economy has done something called financialization. Which is a fancy way of saying it moved from a market of people investing in companies that make thing and show promise of innovation and productivity to a c***** where investors gamble in future promises with no real proof of concept they will do what they promise. A lot of the times its worse. They knowingly mislead each other and the public and play games by borrowing money and leveraging it and investing in even rivals in their industry to feign the appearance of confidence and activity. Now its basically completely disconnected from reality. All the wealth in society has been pulled out and its swirling around in these bullshit c***** markets. Building factories, making products, hiring people? All of that is for suckers. The real money is made by borrowing money and gambling in bubbles and rug pulling with market manipulation. Its being friends with the president and getting the heads up when he's about to lie about the war being over so you can buy c**** oil then sell later once its revealed it was a lie and the price skyrockets. Its the same bullshit reasons why Elon Musk gets billion dollar packages from Tesla and so on despite the fact his actions and optics have objectively done nothing but harm and tank the company's prospects. We no longer live in a merit based economy. Our economy no longer cares about material realities. Its just vibes from coked out investors living in ivory towers huffing delusions that tomorrow the AI mystery will be cracked and employers everywhere will be able to fire every human employee on the planet.
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Alagore Mar 18, 2026 +2
Because it's priced in. It's always priced in.
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BonkHits4Jesus Mar 17, 2026
How much have you sold from your 401k? Because big etfs are basically the majority of things these days
0
dMestra Mar 17, 2026 -18
Cuz this is just a threat for the headlines. More top Iranian leaders were killed in the last few hours and the supreme leader was flown to Moscow. This regime is living on borrowed time. Edit: downvoters don't understand that the market has already reacted to the straits being closed last week. This is a nothing burger headline when compared to the above events, which can be perceived as the US making progress
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Malaix Mar 17, 2026 +4
America can't uproot the entire IRGC. Iran is a country of millions of people existing on basically a natural fortress. Their advantage of that they can hide in caves and mountains and bunkers using a massive stockpile of drones and missiles we can't completely block. As long as they say they will hit ships trying to pass those ships wont risk the gauntlet. America cannot change this dynamic. Not without committing thousands of troops if its even possible. And if they do that we are going to be watching US troops getting mulched by drones. In a war where morale started off record low. And if Iran felt they were even close to running out of the ability to fight or threaten the strait? They would unless their arsenal against their neighbor's oil infrastructure. You know how hard it is to put a burning oil well out? The economies of their neighbors would be ruined, the would supply of oil would be destroyed, it would be an environmental and energy crisis. They can also hit the desalinization plants too to destroy the water supply for the region. This is permeant massive long term damage which is why they haven't done it yet. Iran is choosing to slowly raise the temperature on the global economy because even just that is impacting all of us. That is why people are trying to tell you lot there is no way to win this. Iran holds the cards here. Not America. America cannot open the strait, it cannot protect the ships, it cannot uproot the IRGC from the country, and as far as the IRGC is concerned America has little leverage here in making them give up. The reward for Iran is too big. Future assurances and concessions to prevent Israel and the US from attacking them and their right to remain a free sovereign country. The motivation to surrender or negotiate with Trump is like... Nill. At this point I think they understand they will just become a punching bag whenever Trump needs a headline. If Trump declares he wins and they accept that now he'll be back bombing them during the midterms and then again during the general. He bombed them mid negotiation. Zero point to do that without demanding concessions from America right now.
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dMestra Mar 17, 2026 -2
The IRGC is hated by its citizens, and Iranians were celebrating the strikes, there is no such support like the Taliban did in Afghanistan. Also whatever remaining militias they have can't hide in caves and control the straits at the same time, that doesn't make any logistical or operational sense. Indeed I've no doubt that this war wont be over easily, there will be a power vacuum and local infighting between factions, but there is confusion about what my comment is trying to address. You're talking about long term macro events, I'm talking about market behaviour. How the stock market reacts ≠ actual long term macroevents. The market doesn't just price in every single headline title or how every event might unfold. Theres a difference between achieving short term key military objectives, vs the long term domino effects. You don't need me to tell you that the stock market only cares about short term events. Once this news cycles gets boring the stock market will forget about it, just like it does with every other war. Believe what you want, the market ended green today. That's all I'm purely addressing towards the initial comment.
-2
Malaix Mar 17, 2026 +2
> The IRGC is hated by its citizens By some. Not all. Like do you really think the entire population of Iran hates them to the point of open rebellion? >and Iranians were celebrating the strikes Some where some weren't but the fact the US and Israel are leveling Tehran and blowing up schools might sour their opinion on the matter. Like I get it. The theocracy sucks. But getting bombed as a habit of radicalizing people against the bomber. > Also whatever remaining militias they have can't hide in caves and control the straits at the same time Yes they can. That's the problem America has with the drones. They can take relatively basic materials weld together a bomb drone in a workshop somewhere and just lob them at ships. They don't need to be sitting out there with artillery they can hang out in mountains and bunkers and so one and bombard targets miles away. > The market doesn't just price in every single headline title or how every event might unfold. It kind of did. The price of oil jumped over a lie the sec of commerce said about a ship being escorted and then dropped when they admitted it was false. The oil market has been huffing copeium with every Trump lie. >market will forget about it, just like it does with every other war. The problem is a massive disruption to oil isn't like the AI bubble or whatever. It has real material consequences. Eventually they will have to face that reality. If not on the stonks market then in reality where people live. The line being green is going to be small comfort when the peasants break down the door because they can't afford to eat.
2
dMestra Mar 17, 2026
Yes a majority of the population do not support the IRGC, especially after the massacre on people protesting against them. I happen to be in this space and frankly I don't think you quite understand the nuance in how the market reacts to specific events, so I won't bother explaining much more, I'm not here to debate geopolitics. I'm here to answer that one comment asking specifically why the market didn't dip specifically today on specifically this news. Market ended green today, that's all that matters to day traders, which is what I'm assuming the original commenter is doing, since long term traders do not care about daily fluctuations
0
invalidpassword Mar 17, 2026 +15
Way to go, Trump, way to go. You reap what you sow. MAHA may come to fruition before we know it because gas will be too expensive to drive so we'll be walking whenever possible. Ironic that Trump will actually be helping to reduce carson emissions.
15
greaterwhiterwookiee Mar 17, 2026 +6
Where’s trump’s fellow “Board of Peace” members? Anyone? Anyone? Board of Peace?
6
LuminaraCoH Mar 17, 2026 +5
This morning, someone said "People keep blaming Trump and the war with Iran for fuel prices. It's not because of Trump or the war, it's a mess that started six years ago." When I asked him who was president six years ago, he gave me a dirty look and walked away.
5
Kurtpasa1923 Mar 17, 2026 +28
Seeing that the US is creating all this chaos solely for Israel is indicative of who is in control of the US government.
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CrotasScrota84 Mar 17, 2026 +6
They increase prices of everything only to settle at a new high it’s so f****** obvious they’re scamming people everyone
6
Hothacon Mar 17, 2026 +3
*"This business will get out of control! It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!"* -- Hunt for Red October
3
Riptide360 Mar 17, 2026 +8
Inflation spikes anytime there is an oil crisis. This one will be global.
8
Physical-Ad-6170 Mar 18, 2026 +1
The Persians learned a lot from the Spartans at Thermopylae.
1
Chajos Mar 18, 2026 +1
I think the reaction to this shows exactly why they are lobbying so hard against renewable energy. All the money is currently in oil and it will be cold day in hell when they let that power and wealth slip their grasp. They are making MORE money now. This war is good for the people that are already rich and f*** you for being poor enough that you have to fill your own cars gas tank yourself.
1
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