The US energy secretary said Friday the US Navy was preparing to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz “as soon as it’s reasonable to do it,” as traffic through the key trade route remains strangled due to the US-Israel war on Iran.

India said Saturday it was pushing ahead with imports of Russian oil, after a temporary US waiver to import crude from Moscow due war in the Mideast -- but adding it did not need Washington’s permission.

US crude futures climbed 12 percent on Friday due to disruptions to global oil supplies because of the expanding ‌US-Israeli war with Iran.

International Energy Agency (IEA) chief Fatih Birol sought Friday to tamp down fears of a global oil crisis as conflict rages in the Middle East, saying there was “plenty of oil in the market.”

A group of US states said Thursday that they had filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on imports, imposed after the Supreme Court struck down his global duties last month.

Sean Robinson, a 54-year-old schoolteacher in the US capital Washington, did not realize how high gas prices had gotten until he arrived at the pump on Friday.

The war with Iran could leave consumers and businesses worldwide facing weeks or months of higher fuel prices even if the week-old conflict ends quickly, as suppliers grapple with damaged facilities, disrupted logistics, and elevated risks to shipping.

Washington temporarily eased economic sanctions against Russia on Thursday to allow Russian oil stranded at sea to be sold to India

The declaration came just before government ‌lawyers met with a federal trade judge to try to hammer out a broad settlement process

Brent North Sea crude, surged to $92.69 per barrel, up 8.5 percent for the day

The U.S. Navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz ⁠if necessary, Trump said on Tuesday

The price hike comes at a politically sensitive time for President Donald Trump as midterm elections approach, hitting voters hard.

Driven by a tightening of US sanctions in the lead up to the ouster of leader Nicolas Maduro.

Gold prices edged higher on Thursday as ‌the widening Middle East conflict drove investors towards the safe-haven asset, while a rebound in the dollar limited gains.

Donald Trump is waking up to the fact that cutting off the world’s largest oil and gas shipping route has dire consequences. That’s clear from his scramble to restart flows through the Strait of Hormuz ​by offering insurance for tankers and dispatching US Navy escorts. The idea evokes the late-1980s “Tanker War”, when Washington protected oil shipments during the Iran-Iraq ‌War. But this time a quick fix is unlikely.

The weeks before Eid-ul-Fitr, the country’s largest religious festival, are traditionally a ripe time for the clothing business. However, loom producers are facing a marked decline in sales this year, owing mainly to two factors -- little presence of foreign buyers and a lack of local wholesale trade.

The Middle East was the source of 57 percent of China's direct seaborne crude imports in 2025

Spot gold was up 0.4 percent at $5,153.11 per ounce, as of 0638 GMT

The ruling comes after the Supreme Court blocked a swath of Trump's duties last month -- dealing a major blow to his trade agenda

The conflict in the resource-rich region has sent global oil prices soaring, and markets have been thrown into turmoil