Brent oil price tops $110 as Hormuz and Houthi strikes bite

Crude is bid on the Gulf again, but the stress is showing up in the products, not the barrel. Brent futures stood at $110.58 in Wednesday trading, up 1.65%, and WTI at $99.35, up 1.56%, after Iranian Revolutionary Guards reported naval mines stopping tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, with two vessels said ablaze, and Yemen's Houthis claimed strikes on Saudi Aramco facilities at Yanbu, the Shaybah oilfield and airports. Those are claims from the parties involved, not independently confirmed damage, and the market has priced them that way: the crude numbers are firm but not the parabolic spike you see when a strait actually closes. The bigger move sits in the diesel complex and in freight, wher…