US sinks Iranian tankers; Brent tops $100 and stocks slide

US forces sank four Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman and destroyed a fifth near Kharg Island on Tuesday, a sharp escalation in the US-Iran conflict. The news sent Brent crude above $100 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time since July — a roughly $20 rebound from early August's sub-$80 lows — and dragged risk assets lower into the close.

Markets

US stocks fell across the board: the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 300 points (-0.6%), the S&P 500 slipped 0.3%, the Nasdaq Composite gave up 0.5%, and the Russell 2000 retreated 0.5%. The VIX jumped as Treasury yields climbed on the mounting inflation pressure from the oil shock.

European equities fell harder than Wall Street. The FTSE 100 closed down 1.4%, the DAX fell 1.6%, and the CAC 40 dropped nearly 2% in a broad continental selloff tracking the same oil-and-rates shock.

Commodities

Brent crude traded above $100 a barrel, up roughly 2% on the day and its first visit to that level since July. European natural gas jumped too, advancing close to 4% toward 79 EUR/MWh — its highest settlement since late 2022.

Crypto

Bitcoin spiked to $79,760 during the European morning, up about 1.7% from Tuesday's roughly $78,456 UTC close, as oil-driven inflation-hedging flows briefly lifted it. It then rolled over alongside equities during the US/European risk-off selloff, ending essentially flat near $78,460 as of 19:00 UTC. Ether saw a similar round trip, from a high near $2,523 back down to about $2,482, down roughly 0.1% on the day. Among majors, BNB underperformed, down about 1.6% to $739.9, and DOGE fell about 1.5% to $0.0887; SOL and XRP were little changed.

No concrete new crypto-regulatory development broke in the window — the SEC's "Regulation Crypto Assets" proposal remains in its comment period and the Clarity Act remains stalled in Congress, both unchanged from prior coverage.

What it means for crypto trading

Crypto tracked the oil-driven risk-off swing intraday — rallying with the initial inflation-hedge bid, then giving it back as equities sold off — but held its overnight gains rather than breaking down outright with stocks. Thursday's PPI and Friday's CPI prints, landing on top of a live Middle East supply shock, are the real catalyst to watch: a hot inflation surprise stacked on this oil spike is what would firm up hawkish Fed repricing and could trigger a genuine crypto drawdown, not this session's round trip.

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