Oil prices stayed elevated Friday as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained far below normal and efforts to end the Iran war produced only limited results, while Republicans in Congress delayed planned votes on legislation that would have compelled President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war.
Who Pays for the War Machine
The people at the bottom are already paying in the most ordinary way possible: through higher prices, disrupted shipping, and a market that treats war as just another trading signal. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 2.3% to $104.97 a barrel. It was around $70 per barrel in February before the war’s start. Benchmark U.S. crude traded 1.8% higher at $98.10 a barrel. Oil prices remained elevated over disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for oil and gas transit, with shipping activities still well below before the Iran war began in late February.
A report showed inflation hitting a four-year low in April, at 1.4%, despite higher prices for oil and gas due to the war. That is the kind of contradiction the apparatus likes to call stability: prices climbing in one sector, shipping choked in another, and ordinary people told to absorb the damage while financiers and officials parse the numbers.
What the Powerful Call “Debate”
Talks between the U.S. and Iran have dragged on, adding to uncertainty. Markets, naturally, are “still searching for signs of progress in a potential deal between the US and Iran,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note on Friday. “While there are signs of optimism, uncertainty reigns.”
That uncertainty is not abstract. It is built into the war economy itself, where military escalation, diplomatic delay, and commodity speculation all feed one another. Wall Street gained on Thursday, with the benchmark S&P 500 adding 0.2% to 7,445.72. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6% to 50,285.66, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite edged up 0.1% to 26,293.10. Asian shares advanced Friday following modest gains on Wall Street, while U.S. futures edged higher.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.7% to 63,339.07. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.4% to 7,847.71. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng picked up 0.9% to 25,612.40, while the Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.9% to 4,112.90. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 8,657.00. Taiwan’s Taiex closed 2.2% higher, while India’s Sensex rose 0.6%.
Congress Plays for Time
Republicans in Congress delayed into June planned votes on dismissing legislation that would compel President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war. The House had scheduled a Thursday vote on a war powers resolution brought by Democrats that would rein in Trump’s military campaign. But as it became clear that Republicans would not have the numbers to defeat the bill, GOP leaders declined to hold a vote on it.
That is the legislative theater of empire: one side introduces a resolution, the other side stalls until the numbers look safer, and the war machine keeps moving while the public is told the process is working. The vote was not held, and the machinery of command remained intact.
Meanwhile, the market kept sorting winners and losers. Shares of Nvidia fell 1.8% despite better-than-expected quarterly results on the artificial intelligence frenzy, with some analysts believing its share price still as undervalued. Southwest Airlines gained 2.7% and American Airlines climbed 4.9% as oil prices eased before bouncing back. Ralph Lauren surged 13.9% following stronger-than-expected quarterly results.
In other dealings early Friday, the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury was at 4.57%, down from more than 4.67% earlier in the week, when higher global inflationary pressures stemming from the war fueled a surge in bond yields. The U.S. dollar rose to 159.12 Japanese yen from 158.98 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1605, down from $1.1619.