Evening Briefing Americas

Oil Spikes After Trump’s Speech About War

If the US president intended to reassure oil markets, Thursday’s numbers reflect a distinct lack of success.

A woman speaks on the phone as emergency workers sift through rubble of a residential building that was hit in an airstrike in the early hours of March 27 in Tehran.Photographer: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images via Getty Images Europe

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By David Rovella

April 2, 2026 at 10:18 PM UTC

If Donald Trump intended his speech about the Iran war last night to have a reassuring effect on oil markets, Thursday’s numbers reflected a distinct lack of success on that front.

The 79-year-old president on Wednesday (and again today) reiterated his whipsaw social media strategy of threatening continued bombing of Iran—including targeting civilian infrastructure—while saying the war will soon be over. (And like the US military strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean, attacks on civilian installations could constitute a war crime.)