Lately, oil and oil politics have had a bad habit of making us all feel miserable.
Like we may continue to do all weekend.
Crude oil jumped sharply, ending the week up 8% or more, and higher gasoline prices may follow over the weekend.
Light sweet crude closed at $105.42 a barrel, up 4% on May 15, and 10.5% on the week. Brent crude, the global benchmark, settled at $109.26, up $3.54 on and the day and up about 8% for the week.
An irony was that gasoline prices, as of Friday, were slightly lower than a week ago, as measured by both AAA and GasBuddy. The two trackers of retail prices in the U.S. found national average price at about $4.52 a gallon, down from $4.54 or so a day earlier.
That reflected an easing of crude prices and a sense that neither the Trump Administration nor Iran wanted a massive increase in hostilities.
Geopolitics weighs on a deal
But the good feelings about gas prices faded at the end of the week as the conventional wisdom on that point shifted.
U.S. President Donald Trump was unable to convince China President Xi Jinping to join the United States in getting the Strait of Hormuz reopened.
The strait, through which some 20% of the world’s oil flows to customers in Asia and elsewhere, has been effectively closed since the United States and Israel started their missile and bombing attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
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Xi was primarily interested in making sure the Trump Administration understood China’s bigger priorities now are establishing its position as a superpower and reducing the U.S. involvement with Taiwan.
Trump was trying to get trade deals closed. He did announce a deal for Boeing: the sale of some 200 airlines. But the total was much less than investors had expected.
Boeing, however, issued a statement to TheStreet and others on Friday saying the 200 planes were a start as the company restarts business with China after 10 years. “We expect further commitments will follow after this initial tranche.”
But Xi wouldn’t offer to help the United States and Israel convince the Iranians to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. China’s Foreign Ministry issued a blunt statement that the war with Iran should never have happened.
Trump insisted China wants the war to end. It gets much of its oil from the Persian Gulf countries. But he found China’s unwillingness to help the U.S. perplexing. “It’s a crazy thing there, a little bit crazy,” he told reporters.
So, many oil tankers are stuck in the Persian Gulf, although Iraq was trucking oil to tankers at anchor in Syria.
And oil prices went up.
Oil-price jump hits stocks, interest rates
The stalemate, if you can call it that, had effects across markets, and consumers in the United States will be hurt.
The oil-price spike stopped the big tech-stock rally in its tracks in the United States, and interest rates jumped. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 1.2% to7,409. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.5% to 26,225.
Apple was the sole big tech stock to hit a 52-week high. The S&P 500‘s energy sector, up 2.3%, was alone of the 11 sectors in the index to show a gain on the day.
The 10-year Treasury yieldhit its highest level in a year, and the 30-year U.S. bond hit a 52-week high of 5.127%, its highest yield since 2007, The Wall Street Journal noted.
Related: Scott Bessent cuts to the chase on Iran, what comes next for oil
Mortgage rates moved higher in response. Mortgage News Daily’s daily report showed the rate on a 30-year mortgage at 6.62%, the highest level since the end of March.
The oil-price spike halted the big tech-stock rally in the United States, and interest rates jumped.
The 10-year Treasury yield hit its highest level in a year, and the 30-year U.S. bond hit a 52-week high of 5.127%. It was the highest yield on the bond since 2007, The Wall Street Journal noted. Mortgage rates moved higher in response.
Related: JPMorgan pulls no punches on Strait of Hormuz, oil prices
This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the Automotive section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: finance.yahoo.com
