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Oil Prices and Stocks Climb as US-Iran Standoff Keeps Strait of Hormuz in Limbo

Tankers and gas carriers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP)
Tankers and gas carriers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP)
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Oil Prices and Stocks Climb as US-Iran Standoff Keeps Strait of Hormuz in Limbo

Tankers and gas carriers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP)
Tankers and gas carriers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP)

Oil prices climbed more than 5% while Asian shares also advanced Monday as a standoff between Iran and the US prevented tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz.

The Gulf waterway was closed again after Iran reversed a decision to reopen the strait and President Donald Trump said a US Navy blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect.

US benchmark crude gained 5.6% to $87.20 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, was up 5.3% at $95.16 a barrel.

Despite renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East, share prices were mostly higher in Asia.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1% to 59,045.45, while South Korea's Kospi was up 1.1% at 6,260.92.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.8% to 26,373.71 and the Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.6% to 4,075.08.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,943.90.

In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 1.4%.

“The problem for markets is not the absence of hope; it is the overpricing of it,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. “The latest move higher in equities has started to feel less like conviction and more like momentum feeding on itself.”

On Friday, oil prices had dropped back to where they were in the early days of the Iran war, and US stocks raced to a fresh record after Iran said the strait was open again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Gulf to customers worldwide.

A freer flow of oil could relieve pressure on prices for gasoline and all kinds of other products that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately help people pay less on credit-card interest and mortgage bills.

The S&P 500 leaped 1.2% to an all-time high of 7,126.06, closing out a third straight week of big gains, its longest streak since Halloween.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.8% to 49,447.43. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5% to 24,468.48.

The US stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting a bottom in late March on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy despite their war.

The price for a barrel of benchmark US crude had plunged 9.4% after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that passage for all commercial vessels through the strait “is declared completely open” as a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon.

Brent crude fell 9.1%.

After Araghchi's announcement, Trump said on his social media network that the US Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports remained “in full force” pending a deal on the war, though he also suggested that “should go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated.”

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the US had seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to get around a naval blockade. Iran’s joint military command said Tehran would respond soon and called the US seizure an act of piracy.

A fragile, two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran is set to expire Wednesday, while escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz raises questions over new talks to end the war.

Since the war began, market sentiment has swung between optimism and gloom over when the fighting will end and what costs the world economy will endure. A strong start to the earnings reporting season for big US companies has helped support stocks.

In other dealings early Monday, the US dollar rose to 158.90 Japanese yen from 158.79 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1757 from $1.1742.

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Business

Saudi Energy Minister: Oil Pumped Through East-West Pipeline Reached 5.8 Million Barrels

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. Reuters file photo
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. Reuters file photo
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Saudi Energy Minister: Oil Pumped Through East-West Pipeline Reached 5.8 Million Barrels

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. Reuters file photo
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. Reuters file photo

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Tuesday that oil pumped through the East-West Pipeline, reached 5.8 million barrels as of Tuesday morning.

The pipeline runs to the Kingdom's Red Sea export hub of Yanbu.

Since the disruption of ⁠oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, Riyadh has been using the pipeline to reroute oil to Yanbu.

Prince Abdulaziz spoke at the Made in GCC 2026 Forum and Exhibition held in Bahrain’s capital Manama.

Business

Saudi Arabia Bolsters Food Security with $798 Million for Strategic Commodities

Agricultural land in Saudi Arabia (SPA) 
Agricultural land in Saudi Arabia (SPA) 
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Saudi Arabia Bolsters Food Security with $798 Million for Strategic Commodities

Agricultural land in Saudi Arabia (SPA) 
Agricultural land in Saudi Arabia (SPA) 

Saudi Arabia’s Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) is playing a central role in national efforts to bolster food security, allocating SAR 3 billion ($798 million) to finance imports of strategic commodities through direct lending and partnerships with banks.

The funding is designed to cushion the impact of supply-chain disruptions and difficulties in getting goods into the Kingdom, with disbursements to beneficiaries continuing through the end of this year.

Saudi Arabia no longer views food security solely through the lens of increasing domestic production. Its approach has evolved into an integrated system encompassing stronger production, secure supply chains, strategic reserves, the localization of modern technologies and more efficient use of water and other resources.

By the end of the third quarter, the ADF had extended more than SAR 600 million ($159.6 million) in loans and credit facilities across several regions of the Kingdom. The financing covers projects in red meat, supply chains and processing industries, with the goal of increasing domestic production and sustaining food security.

Development loans

Since the beginning of the year, the fund has also extended more than SAR 150 million ($40 million) in development loans.

A total of 737 loans were issued, including 412 for rain-fed crops, around 236 for fruit production, processing and marketing, and about 56 for field crops and vegetables. Coffee production and processing accounted for around 14 loans, while four covered operating costs for date purchases.

Habib Al-Shammari, spokesman for the ADF, told Asharq Al-Awsat that development loans allow individuals to finance a range of agricultural activities, enabling them to contribute to economic and social development while helping strengthen food security.

They also allow farmers to capitalize on available opportunities and resources and the comparative advantages of different regions, while improving efficiency and promoting the optimal, sustainable use of agricultural and renewable water resources.

Among the programs backed by the fund is the Basic Commodities Import Initiative, carried out in coordination with the National Development Fund and the General Food Security Authority. It seeks to bolster strategic reserves of essential commodities and maintain stable food supply chains.

The ADF said the initiative reflects efforts by the Saudi leadership to address the repercussions of current conditions in the region by ensuring adequate supplies of essential food products, strengthening strategic stocks and maintaining the flow of goods to the domestic market.

The fund operates under an integrated strategy aligned with the National Agriculture Strategy, the Food Security Strategy and the National Development Fund Strategy, making it one of the key enablers of the Kingdom’s food security and environmental sustainability goals.

Al-Shammari said the ADF’s role extends beyond financing farmers and investors. Its range of financial products helps the agricultural sector adopt and localize modern technologies, increase productivity and become more sustainable, while taking water-security requirements into account.

Water at the heart of financing

The fund encourages agricultural projects to embrace technologies that reduce water and energy consumption while improving production efficiency.

Particular attention is given to projects that reuse treated water, alongside efforts to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards throughout the financing process.

Backing also extends to innovative startups developing solutions in smart and vertical farming, water and energy technologies, agricultural production and food.

The approach reflects a broader shift in agricultural finance, from funding conventional production to investing in technologies capable of raising output while conserving natural resources, particularly water and energy, among the main challenges facing the sector’s long-term sustainability.

Research partnerships

In parallel, the ADF continues to forge strategic partnerships with government agencies, the private sector and research institutions to develop and apply modern agricultural practices and advance the technologies it finances.

Its partners include King Saud University, King Faisal University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and the National Center for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Development (Estidamah). The partnerships examine agricultural methods that can promote the adoption of modern technologies and improve efficiency across the sector.

Through this framework, the fund seeks to generate lasting economic and environmental benefits by increasing agricultural output, improving resource efficiency and reducing risks associated with water scarcity, in support of the Kingdom’s food-security and water-sustainability goals.

Against this backdrop, agricultural financing is expanding into investment across the entire food-security system, from meat and agricultural production to storage, refrigeration and processing, through to agricultural technologies, water and energy.

Ultimately, the approach is aimed at ensuring stable supplies and building strategic reserves capable of weathering changing conditions. Saudi food security is therefore based not simply on having food available in the market, but on the national system’s capacity to produce, store and transport it, secure its supply and efficiently manage the resources needed for production, ensuring its sustainability for future generations.

Business

Digital Resilience: Saudi Arabia Readies Government Services for Continuity

A citizen captures footage at a conference in Riyadh (SPA)
A citizen captures footage at a conference in Riyadh (SPA)
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Digital Resilience: Saudi Arabia Readies Government Services for Continuity

A citizen captures footage at a conference in Riyadh (SPA)
A citizen captures footage at a conference in Riyadh (SPA)

A student follows a lesson in a virtual classroom, a patient receives a medical consultation from home and a beneficiary accesses an official document on a mobile phone -snapshots of how digital government services have become part of everyday life in Saudi Arabia.

As access becomes easier, ensuring those services remain available is increasingly important. Education, healthcare and government transactions are daily needs that require readiness to maintain service availability and allow beneficiaries to rely on them when needed.

Amid current political conditions in the region and related security developments, such preparedness has taken on greater importance in supporting the continuity of daily life.

Digital resilience therefore goes beyond simply making services available electronically. It encompasses government entities’ ability to continue providing them and respond to changing needs through risk management and business continuity planning.

What has been achieved?

The Digital Government Authority (DGA) supports this effort through three interconnected services. Those include classifying platforms according to their importance and setting target recovery times for their services; recording digital service availability rates; and regulating outage reporting when required.

According to the DGA’s annual report, these tools help government entities maintain service continuity by establishing priorities, monitoring availability and defining reporting responsibilities.

Alongside these preparedness measures, Saudi Arabia’s Digital Experience Maturity Index reached 87.06% in 2026 following an assessment of 59 platforms. The quality of the digital experience measured by the index and the business continuity governed by regulations and services extend efforts from making platforms easier to use to supporting their ability to keep delivering services.

Risk at the heart of planning

The regulatory approach begins with the Controls of Risk Management and Business Continuity for Digital Government, designed to address risks proactively by establishing a risk management system and continuously improving it.

On business continuity, the controls cover establishing and activating the system, verifying its effectiveness and continuing to develop it.

The requirements embed risk management within the institutional workflow. The task does not end with drawing up a plan but extends to testing its effectiveness and improving it. Preparedness therefore becomes a continuous process tied to how services are managed rather than a measure invoked only in specific circumstances.

Linking risk management with business continuity allows entities to understand what could affect a service, organize preparations to address it, and direct resources and procedures toward priority operations.

Priority and recovery time

At the operational level, the Government Platforms and Applications Classification Service allows entities to classify their platforms and applications and set target recovery times for digital services according to their importance and the impact of any disruption.

This makes the nature and impact of a service the basis for determining priorities, rather than treating all platforms as having identical continuity requirements. A target recovery time is then assigned to define what continuity arrangements should achieve.

The approach shifts planning from a general discussion of preparedness toward requirements tied to specific services and their importance.

Monitoring availability

While classification establishes priorities, the Service Availability Rate allows government entities to record the availability rates of digital services provided to beneficiaries to monitor compliance.

When reporting is required, the Reporting Digital Government Services Disruption Service provides government entities with a defined process. It begins with the entity’s information technology chief appointing a crisis team responsible for submitting reports.

The three functions are therefore interconnected: classification establishes importance and target recovery times, availability records provide monitoring data, and outage reporting defines the communication channel and who is responsible for it. Together, they organize service continuity from planning and monitoring through to handling incidents requiring notification.

Guidance for implementation

These tools are supported by guidance documents, including the Guideline of Risk and Business Continuity Management for Digital Government and guidance on combating digital fraud.

The first supports government entities in applying relevant regulatory requirements and improving practices that underpin services to beneficiaries, providing a reference to help translate requirements into implementation.

Digital fraud guidance adds another dimension related to the security of transactions by supporting a risk-management methodology and national efforts to curb digital fraud.

Continuous access and reliable use are complementary needs. The first concerns keeping a service available, while the second concerns safeguarding transactions carried out through it.

Readiness centered on people

These measures give digital resilience a practical meaning: classification linking preparedness to the importance of a service, data for monitoring availability, clearly assigned reporting responsibilities, and controls and guidance supporting implementation.

Though regulatory and operational in nature, their impact is directly connected to people’s ability to manage their daily lives. For the student in a virtual classroom, the patient receiving a consultation and the beneficiary retrieving an official document, the objective is clear: ease of access must be matched by readiness to keep the service running.

Trust in digital government begins with the user experience but rests on the planning and monitoring behind it, keeping people’s needs at the heart of preparedness as daily life increasingly moves online.