Hi, I'm Rachana Shanbhogue, the Economist's Business Affairs Editor, and this is Inside Economics.
The war in Iran has many consequences,
but today we're going to focus on one part of the fallout: the energy shock.
What was thought to be the nightmare crisis scenario has come to pass over the last few days.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which 15% of the world's seaborne oil travels, has been more or less shut off.
The price of Brent crude touched nearly $120 a barrel as investors woke up to this reality.
And then, last night, it tumbled just as quickly after Donald Trump said the war is 'very complete, pretty much'.
But there remains a huge amount of uncertainty about what happens now.
So we're going to lay out the range of possibilities.
With me is Henry Curr, our Economics Editor, Mike Bird, our Wall Street Editor, joining us from New York,
and we have a very special guest with us today, Matthieu Favas, our Commodities Editor.
Welcome all.
So Mike, if I can start with you,
it was a pretty wild day in markets, especially the oil markets yesterday.
Um, tell us about it.
What, how do you read Donald Trump's comments?
It was an incredibly chaotic day yesterday in oil markets, and that spilled over into equity markets.
I think the statement that Trump gave towards the end of the day in the US,
the end of the trading day, was exactly what everyone had been hoping for,
which was any sign of backtracking.