Oil back above $100 as the Dow drops 500 points

Oil rattled Wall Street yesterday. After Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed to have hit two Saudi tankers, Brent jumped almost 7% to top $100 for the first time in two months. With the Bab el-Mandeb Strait now disrupted alongside Hormuz, two key oil chokepoints are under pressure at once. The Dow fell more than 500 points.

Alphabet and Tesla piled on. Alphabet's revenue grew 25% and cloud sales jumped 82%, but its outlook fell short and it raised this year's capital spending. Spending more than it earns pushed free cash flow, the money left after investment, into negative territory. Tesla was seen burning cash on Elon Musk's AI ambitions.

Rates are rising. The 10-year Treasury yield topped 4.7%, its highest since January 2025, and the odds of a September Fed hike have grown. Weekly jobless claims of 187,000, the lowest in decades, strengthen that case. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 6.58%, the highest this year.

On trade, the Trump administration is imposing 10% to 12.5% tariffs on 60 trading partners including the EU, citing a forced-labor investigation. They take effect just after midnight, a redesign meant to survive legal challenges after the Supreme Court struck down the earlier tariffs.