Flames of the Ninth Night: Middle East oil tankers and gunships fly in tandem

On July 19 at 7:00 PM US Eastern Time, the U.S. Central Command announced a new round of airstrikes against Iran, marking the ninth consecutive night of attacks. The front line for the first time pushed into Iran’s interior, with the nuclear power facilities in Tabriz and Bushehr hit in sequence. Trump vowed, “We’re bombing heavily to avenge three fallen American servicemen.” Iran, meanwhile, hurled its missiles back to American positions inside Jordan; the Strait of Hormuz’s shipping throughput was declared by Iran to be “back to zero.” U.S. Energy Secretary Wright also tried to sound tough, saying, “Daily volume is still above 7 million barrels.”

Over here, the market script is old-fashioned but effective: oil prices first kneel then rebound. USO (crude oil ETF) follows the pulse of Brent. As long as the Hormuz situation remains unresolved, the supply premium won’t disappear. Defense stocks like LMT and RTX have once again been pulled out of the spotlight to be traded on the “ammunition shortage” narrative—now that the White House’s hawks have taken full control, order expectations are moving faster than artillery shells. On the risk-off side, BTC swings amid both the conflict and inflation; there’s no one-way trend, but with every explosion in the Middle East, capital keeps shifting one step closer onto the chain.

The only thing certain is: from February until now, this war doesn’t look like it’s going to stop. #夏日创作营