Brent crude jumps to $107 per barrel

Brent crude surged 6.3 percent to $107.63 per barrel on 10 September, marking its highest level since May. West Texas Intermediate rose 6.69 percent to $102.48 per barrel, while the Mexican Mix gained 4.74 percent to trade at $104.78 per barrel. Crude prices climbed nearly 7 percent overall during the session, reaching a four-month high as escalating military clashes in the Middle East raised fears of disruption extending into the Red Sea.

A senior official from the Islamic Republic stated that Iran is prepared for wider warfare and will step up counterattacks if the United States continues targeting its territory and infrastructure, adding that Tehran will not yield to an American naval blockade. Meanwhile, Houthi forces seized control of the Red Sea port of Mokha in Yemen, heightening the threat to shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb strait. Warren Patterson, commodities strategist at ING, noted that Red Sea crude exports and Saudi energy infrastructure face mounting danger from Houthi strikes. He added that market concern is also driven by Saudi Arabia's August output print of 6.24 million barrels per day, its lowest level since the 1990s.

Janneth Quiroz, director of economic, FX, and stock analysis at Monex, explained that the conflict has expanded beyond the Strait of Hormuz into regional energy facilities, amid thin inventory buffers and limited spare capacity. Alejandro de la Rosa, an analyst at Signum Research, detailed that 8.3 million barrels per day are currently halted and missing from the market solely due to the war. Felipe Barragán, of Pepperstone, pointed out that tightness in distillates threatens to transmit the shock into refined fuels, transportation, and industrial costs, broadening the issue into global inflation pressures.

The energy surge and US producer inflation prints pushed equity markets lower on expectations of higher Federal Reserve interest rates. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq fell 0.65 percent, the Dow Jones dropped 0.60 percent, and the S&P 500 slipped 0.58 percent. In Mexico, the S&P/BMV IPC dropped 1.09 percent and the FTSE-BIVA declined 1.05 percent, while data from Banco de México showed the Mexican peso depreciated 0.56 percent to 16.9996 per US dollar.