Just now from Trump:
Oil is flowing like never before, thanks to the awesome Power of the
United States Military. A special salute to Secretary of War, Pete
Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, and Commander
of the United States Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper. Because of
them, and all members of the Most Powerful Military anywhere in the
World, BY FAR, the Strait of Hormuz is open to ALL Ship traffic except
for Iran — and that is because of their lying, violent, malicious
leadership, which is taking them down the path of TOTAL DESTRUCTION. We
will therefore have a FULL Blockade, but only on Ships coming to and
from Iranian ports, or carrying anything have to do with Iranian cargo.
Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I
have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with
Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making
into the United States. Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the
same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future. As everyone
is aware, we have the largest Dollar Investment into the United States,
of any Country in History, but these new Investments will make that
Number even larger, and we will see Factories, Plants, and Equipment
pour into the United States at Historic levels, which will create
additional millions of High Paying AMERICAN Jobs! America is WINNING
again, winning like never before. The days of Iran killing hundreds of
thousands of people, including 52,000 protestors, are OVER and, most
importantly, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON! Thank you for your
attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
So the 20% toll announcement barely lasted a day and never went into effect. There was obviously some blowback but perhaps this was part of the strategy all along.
What’s less clear is if any traffic is going to be flowing through Hormuz with ships under attack from Iran. There was a modest bounce in stocks on this and oil has been giving back its earlier gains throughout the session.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.