BRENT TOPS $96 AS KUWAIT INTERCEPTS IRANIAN MISSILES

🔴 Brent crude touched $97 a barrel Thursday before settling at $96.20, up 57 cents, as Kuwait's air defenses engaged incoming Iranian missiles and drones.

CNBC reports oil prices have gained more than 7% this week, with the U.S. and Iran trading military strikes for the first time since July.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate traded 85 cents higher at $91.86 a barrel.

Kuwait's armed forces said the kingdom was facing "ongoing Iranian aggression," according to the Kuwait Times cited by CNBC.

The real number sits offshore. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC that more than 17 million barrels of oil moved through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, a wartime record, under U.S. military protection. Before the war began on Feb. 28, about 20 million barrels a day of crude and product passed through.

That gap is what the market is pricing. Washington says its aim is to degrade Tehran's ability to attack ships transiting the strait.

President Trump said Wednesday he does not expect the hostilities to escalate into a return to war. "I don't think it will be very much longer," he said. "I don't know how much more they can take."

Every barrel that does not clear Hormuz shows up at the pump eventually.

Are you already paying more for gas where you live?

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