Houthi Attacks Push Brent Above $100, Bitcoin (BTC) Risk Correlation in Focus

Brent Tops $100 After Saudi Strikes

Brent crude broke above $100 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time in three months, with the benchmark touching $100.03 after Iran-backed Houthi forces struck oil infrastructure across southern Saudi Arabia. The psychological threshold has proven stubborn this year: a brief push over the line in late July reversed within that same session, which left May as the last month Brent actually held the $100 mark. Tuesday's breakout and the pace of the move are visible in real time on the Brent crude price chart.

Houthi forces launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at four cities on Tuesday — Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait. Fires broke out at Saudi Aramco sites, and 73 people were wounded, including women and children. Jazan hosts a refinery that processes 400,000 barrels per day, putting a working facility at the center of the supply risk. Saudi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki described the assault as a serious escalation and pledged deterrent measures.

The strikes followed US attacks on three Iranian oil tankers over the weekend, and behind both events sits the broader war between the United States and Iran, now in its seventh month. Oil had already climbed to a five-week high when fighting resumed at the end of August, and prices have added roughly $5 since then — momentum that carried the benchmark over $100 in Tuesday's session. For traders, the round number matters less as a level than as a signal: the market is repricing a persistent physical scarcity rather than a one-off headline spike.

Hormuz Flows Collapse, Goldman Lifts View

The Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint connecting Gulf producers to open water, carried 8 million to 9 million barrels daily before fighting resumed on August 30; flows have since dropped below 2 million, according to Rystad Energy chief economist Claudio Galimberti. Gulf crude exports now run near 11 million barrels a day, against 18 million before the war. The physical market is tighter still: Dubai and Oman grades are trading between $104 and $105, and one source familiar with the deals described physical conditions as “incredibly tight.”

Refined products add to the pressure. David Fyfe, chief economist at Argus Media, said diesel markets are “screaming shortage,” and European gas prices hit a three-year high last week — evidence the squeeze reaches beyond crude itself. Goldman Sachs raised its Brent forecast by $5 on Tuesday, to $85 for December and $80 for 2027, and flagged a path above $120 if Gulf output stays 4 million barrels a day below pre-war levels.

The inflation channel is already open. US consumer prices rose 3.4% in the year to July; gasoline climbed 24.6% and the wider energy index 14.7%, while core inflation sat at 2.5% — a gap of nearly a full percentage point that is almost entirely an energy story. August figures arrive Friday. Iran, meanwhile, has answered new US proposals with conditions relayed through intermediaries, so the Hormuz standoff shows little sign of clearing. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Binance.

$78,000 Bitcoin Level in Focus

The through-line for crypto readers runs from barrels to balance sheets: an energy-led inflation impulse raises the real-rate path against which every risk asset is discounted, from equity proxies like the Nasdaq-100 ETF to Bitcoin (BTC) — the largest crypto asset, changing hands near $78,000 at press time. In prior tightening cycles, a widening headline-core inflation gap front-ran bear market conditions for leveraged positions, and capital seeking an inflation hedge has traditionally rotated into gold, though Bitcoin's fixed supply increasingly draws the same framing. Our desk views Friday's August CPI print as the near-term test: if energy keeps headline pressure above core, restrictive-policy expectations harden, and how BTC defends the $78,000 area into that data will tell whether the decoupling thesis still holds.