Headlines

TORONTO - Canadian and U.S. markets lost ground Thursday following a sharp increase in oil prices after attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.  Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Private Wealth, said that markets were facing a “wall of worry” with stocks seeing pressure from several factors, including higher oil prices and nervousness about the AI trade.  “It's important to take a step back and realize markets have done really well, year-to-date. The TSX was at [Read more]

CALGARY - Fuel costs are on the rise in Canada as geopolitical turmoil drives the price of crude oil to its highest level in more than a month.  Gasbuddy.com, which crowdsources pump price data from across Canada and the U.S, says the Canadian national average now sits above $1.80 a litre — a two-cent increase from a day earlier and an eight-cent bump from a week ago.  Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at Gasbuddy, says that could rise by another five to 10 cents over the [Read more]

U.S. President Donald Trump told Axios in an interview on Thursday that he is seriously considering restarting major combat operations in Iran, which could include larger strikes than those carried out during "Operaton Epic Fury," the news outlet reported. "They haven't received enough pain yet," Axios quoted Trump as saying, adding that Trump said he had not yet made a final decision. (Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto) [Read more]

The expansion of the Iran war to the Red Sea has thrown the oil market another dangerous curveball, choking off a fragile recovery in energy flows. The global economy might increasingly respond to this escalation by slowing down. Nearly two weeks into the renewed conflict between the United States and Iran, tensions in the Middle East rose sharply after the Iran-backed Houthi militia on Monday declared a blockade against Saudi vessels seeking to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the [Read more]

Some Chinese refiners have ramped up purchases of sanctioned Russian crude despite shrinking discounts, as an escalation in the Iran war disrupts exports from the Middle East, sources familiar with the situation said. Chinese independent refiners made rare purchases of non-sanctioned Middle East crude at wide discounts when exports gushed out during the short-lived truce between the U.S. and Iran. A resumption of attacks and shipping blockades in the Strait of Hormuz is again throttling oil [Read more]

Matador Resources said on Thursday it would buy privately held Paloma Permian from EnCap Investments for about $1.28 billion, adding high-quality drilling assets in the oil-rich Delaware Basin. U.S. shale producers are prioritizing acquisitions that add premium drilling inventory over rapid production growth to maintain capital discipline, allowing them to sustain output and shareholder returns for longer. The deal gives Matador access to 16,235 net undeveloped acres in Eddy and Lea [Read more]