Company Interview / the open: oil spikes 🛢️stocks to drop

Global equities were sharply lower overnight whilst oil prices surged to their highest level in nearly four years as Iran intensified its attacks on oil and transport facilities across the Middle East. The country's supreme leader has vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut. The local market is set to fall at the open with ASX futures off by 0.3%. 

On Wall Street the major indices fell heavily with spiking oil prices unnerving investors amid heightened inflation fears. Wells Fargo said it expects new US economic projections, to be released next week too, “will shift in a stagflationary direction.” 

In his first public statement since becoming Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed to keep fighting and to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut as leverage against the United States and Israel. 

The International Energy Agency estimates that the Middle East war will slash global oil supply by 8 million barrels a day this month, or almost 250 million barrels in total. It says flows through the Strait of Hormuz are down by more than 90 per cent. 

The US dollar is up 0.5% on the day, whilst the Australian dollar has fallen around 1% to US70.8 cents.