Oil Prices Climb as U.S. Strikes Tanker and Downs Iranian Drones

Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Wednesday after yet another escalation in the Middle East, with Iran firing missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain, and the U.S. firing on and disabling an oil tanker heading toward Iran. At the time of writing, Brent front-month futures had climbed 1.09% to trade at $97.05 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate had risen 1.19% to $94.88 per barrel. Both benchmarks are trading near one-week highs after posting strong gains in the previous session. According to