Mon., Aug. 17, 2026
[4:10 PM ET…closing prices for stocks, 3:50ish for commodities and bonds]
Tale of the Tape at the gas pump, nationwide averages, courtesy of AAA.
Fri., Feb. 27…regular $2.98…diesel $3.75
Mon., Aug. 17…regular $4.06…diesel $5.44
Crude oil fluctuated around $82 a barrel on WTI today as traders weighed continued geopolitical tensions against signs that more oil is moving through the Strait than initially expected. Gulf producers appear to be maintaining substantial shipments from the Persian Gulf despite the ongoing conflict, helping to limit concerns over an immediate supply shock.
Gasoline futures, however, hit $3.22 this afternoon. Not good. And you see the price of diesel keeps inching higher.
And then around 2:00 PM, both oil and gas spiked higher, gas futures hitting $3.26! You’re not going to see nationwide prices below $4.00 at that level.
Going back to last Friday, at a rally on Long Island, President Trump boasted that the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports was a “wall of steel” that allowed Washington to effectively govern the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says it is managing traffic in the Strait.
“Pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said with a chuckle.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has vowed that the U.S. will issue unprecedented economic measures against Iran that “have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” without specifying them.
Iran’s economy has taken a major hit, with much of its industrial capacity damaged and crude exports severely curtailed by the U.S. blockade. But the Islamic Republic has weathered waves of sanctions that have failed to force it to bend on its nuclear program or relinquish control over the Strait.
Iran on Saturday fired back at Trump’s claim, saying the waterway “will remain Iranian.”
“The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X.
“This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command.”
A White House official said Trump was joking.
United Arab Emirates’ state-owned oil giant ADNOC said Saturday one of its vessels came under attack the night before.
Monday, President Trump warned Oman that the U.S. will “bomb the sh-t” out of them if they interfere in the conflict with Iran.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the sh-t out of them,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
Iran said last week that it was in talks with Oman about how to reopen the world’s busiest oil shipping channel.
The two nations came to an “understanding” on Monday as they hammer out the final stages of the agreement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement.
Iran has maintained that the Strait will only be reopened with a new toll system imposed, which the U.S. opposes.
Oman signaled at the end of June that it was open to a plan to collect “voluntary” fees from ships crossing the Strait similar to the systems in place in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.
Oman’s repeated willingness to collect fees led Trump to issue his first threat against the country in May, warning that he would “blow up” the allied nation if it failed to “behave.”
Early Monday morning, President Trump posted on Truth Social:
“The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon.”
—
On a different topic, President Trump posted the following on Truth Social yesterday, 5:04 PM:
“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful. Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises! While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’ Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.
But what the heck is President Trump doing? It’s amazing, and sickening, that he refuses to criticize Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping, while always blasting our allies, who, for one, answered the call after 9/11.
Kim Jong Un and his Orcs continue to build their arsenal of nuclear warheads, and they are providing thousands of troops and ballistic missiles to Russia in its war against Ukraine. Last week, Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile from its eastern coast that flew more than 700 kilometers, a test of a new weapon, it would appear, because state media said nothing of the launch.
The U.S. intelligence community’s Annual Threat Assessment, which was issued in March, said North Korea viewed the U.S. as a “strategic competitor and potential adversary” and was “committed to expanding its strategic weapons program.”
South Korea has emerged as a critical ally in Northeast Asia.
“We need South Korea as an ally more than ever to maintain deterrence on the Korean Peninsula and to reinforce our industrial base in critical sectors like shipbuilding and semiconductors,” said Patrick Cronin, an expert on Asian security at the Hudson Institute. “We should not punish Seoul for our lack of a strategy in the Middle East.”
But President Trump loves dictators. His post on Sunday was beyond outrageous, and deeply troubling for an American leader.
—
Stocks and bonds trended lower today on renewed tensions in the Middle East, including in Lebanon.
Tomorrow, Home Depot kicks off Big Box retailer week on the earnings front, with Walmart on Thursday.
No market-moving economic data releases this week.
—
Dow Jones -272…-0.5% [53460]
S&P 500 -40…-0.5% [7745]
Nasdaq -84…-0.3% [26644]
Oil (WTI) $84.60…Brent $90.80
Gold $4420
Silver $65.80
Bitcoin $64, [4:00 PM ET]
U.S. 2-yr. 4.18%
U.S. 10-yr. 4.72%
Japanese 10-yr. 2.91%…30-year high, even as a preliminary estimate of second-quarter GDP, 1.1% ann., was well below consensus…
Back Tues.
***Please support StocksandNews…there are big costs behind it. Click on the GoFundMe link or send a check to PO Box 990, New Providence, NJ 07974.
***For ZELLE: use Zelle recipient briannovak24@gmail.com.
Brian Trumbore
Drop me a line…briannovak24@gmail.com.
