Brent at $100 after U.S. destroys five Iranian tankers

U.S. Central Command said American forces destroyed five Iranian crude carriers on Tuesday after ballistic-missile attacks on a Navy warship, the latest such strike since Saturday. The warship evaded the missiles, Centcom said, and no American personnel were harmed. Four of the vessels were hit in the Gulf of Oman. A fifth was struck near Kharg Island, the terminal that handles roughly 90% of Iran's crude exports. Brent crude is at $100.49 a barrel as of about 7 a.m. Eastern time, up 2.6%, a print it has not made since July. WTI is at $95, up 0.8%.

The round number is doing some of the work. What is not round is the sequence sitting under it: tanker strikes, crude back through $100, and China's factory-gate prices already accelerating on imported oil, with the first U.S. inflation report due tomorrow.

A vessel struck near the hub that loads most of Iran's oil is a different fact from four tankers hit in the Gulf of Oman. That is the supply question sitting under $100 crude, one day before producer prices and a week before the Federal Reserve's September 15-16 meeting. CME FedWatch this morning prices a 60.5% chance of a quarter-point hike at that meeting.

The bid this morning is in crude and energy. The rest of the U.S. board, including semiconductors, is indicated lower.

Energy bid, semiconductors sold

AXLE is indicated higher, just under its $65.52 year high, and BUSO is bid, while ASMH gives back most of Tuesday's 1.2% gain.

The CBOE Volatility Index is at 16.49, up 4.9% this morning. It is a higher print than Tuesday's close, not a scramble: the index's year high is 35.30. The 30-year Treasury yield settled Tuesday at 5.25%; BlackRock's long Treasury fund BTLT is indicated little changed.

The CAC 40 is down 1.8%. South Korea's Kospi rose 1.4% overnight.

China's factory-gate prices already name oil

Overnight, China's National Bureau of Statistics said August producer prices rose 3.8% from a year earlier, up from 3.5% in July, and 0.4% from July, reversing a 0.7% month-to-month decline. Consumer prices rose 0.8%, after 0.5% in July. NBS statistician Dong Lijuan pointed to imported crude and nonferrous metals as the force lifting some domestic industry prices. That is the first official inflation print this week to name oil as an input. Producer prices are due Thursday, consumer prices Friday.

Today's U.S. calendar is thinner. At 10 a.m. Eastern, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for June. Treasury auctions 10-year notes and 17-week bills. Beginning today, it is raising the cap on long-end liquidity-support buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation from $2 billion, through November 4. The 10-year yield settled Tuesday at 4.8%, with the 2-year at 4.39%.

Chime's bank deal and Google's Finland check

Chime Financial, the consumer digital bank, agreed after Tuesday's close to buy its longtime partner Stride Bank for $590 million in cash, lifted full-year revenue guidance to $2.76 billion to $2.77 billion, and is indicated about 10% higher in extended trading. The deal is slated to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

SailPoint, the identity-security software company, is due to report fiscal second-quarter 2027 results before the open, with a call at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. United Natural Foods, the grocery wholesaler, guided fiscal 2027 sales to $31.2 billion to $31.8 billion on Tuesday.

Alphabet's Google said it will invest at least €13 billion in AI infrastructure in Finland over 2027 and 2028, which it called its largest single investment in Europe, and signed a 22-year power-purchase agreement with Fortum for output from the Loviisa nuclear plant.

Oil at $100 is a price. China's PPI is already treating it as a cost. Thursday's producer-price report is the first U.S. chance to see whether that channel is showing up here.