As of 3:46 AM EDT, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil is priced at $101.20 per Barrel and Brent Crude Oil has reached $106.17 in futures market trading as the Israel/US/Iran Conflict continues and worsens in the Middle East. On March 3, Oil was $70 a barrel.
U.S. Stock Markets are down:
Other markets around the world are also seeing significant downturns:
It seems to have begun Sunday night in South Korea:
🚨BREAKING: WORLD ON FIRE
— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) March 9, 2026
SOUTH KOREA'S STOCK MARKET SINKS 8%, TRIGGERING CIRCUIT BREAKER
All this financial trouble is being caused after Israel and the US conducted another military Sneak Attack upon Iran, slightly over one week ago, far worse than the Israeli Sneak Attack which began the "12 Day War" between Israel and Iran in June of last year.
The situation is deteriorating very fast after Iran (and Western Insurance Carriers) effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, strangling about twenty percent of global oil supplies.
The Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared the Strait to be "Closed" and said they would fire upon any vessel trying to transit the Strait. Several vessels actually tied to transit - and were fired upon. Several went on fire. One allegedly burned and sank.
This prompted Insurance Carriers to issue Notice of Cancellation for War (Insurance) Coverage on any vessel trying to transit the Strait. Without Insurance, vessel owners dare not even TRY to travel through there for fear of losing their vessel to hostile acts.
In response to mostly British Insurance Carriers shutting off Insurance Coverage, US President Donald Trump instructed the US Development Finance Agency to begin offering vessel Insurance. It is not known if they have actually begun doing that, or how they could possibly price such coverage given the fact that no government has ever entered that market pretending to be an Insurance Company.
It seems that once the US Government started pretending to be a Pension Fund and offered "Social Security" in the year 1935 - which keeps going broke, then entered the medical field with Medicare Coverage, which is the poster child for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, they seem to have gotten the idea that somehow Government can replace private industry in every sector, even though they are devoid of knowledge, experience, or skill in such industries.
With global oil supplies suffering the biggest supply shock in recorded history, the price for crude oil continues to skyrocket, causing Gasoline and Diesel fuel prices to skyrocket. In one week, Gasoline jumped $0.50 per gallon and Diesel fuel jumped about $0.92 a gallon.
With consumers and businesses having to pay so much more for fuel, money that would normally be going into the economy, is being sucked-out of it by energy prices. Consumers and businesses then have less available money to spend, which is now causing the rest of the economy to falter.
Unemployment has been rising steadily for the first few months of this year as Artificial Intelligence (AI) begins replacing people at jobs that used to be secure for life. People whose jobs have been replaced by AI have lost very hefty salaries and their spending has naturally been curtailed, which the economy has been suffering from so far this year. It is all expected to get much worse.
Nuclear War Underground Bunkers
Back to the ongoing Iran conflict, Social Media Pundit Paul Joseph Watson made a posting to the Social Media Platform "X" revealing that a US Cabinet-Level Secretary made a text message inquiry to Ron Hubbard, whose company builds Armageddon-proof, underground nuclear Bunkers, inquiring "When will my Bunker be ready?"
Media Outlets like the London "Telegraph" newspaper, and Internet News Outlet "Raw Story" CONFIRM that Trump Administration officials have, in fact, made inquiries for underground nuclear bunkers!
Raw Story:
London Telegraph:
The reason for these inquires turns out to be that once again - as happened during the "12 Day War" in June, 2025, Israel is not doing very well. Iranian missiles are raining down and Israel's supply of missile Interceptors is rapidly running low. Videos are emerging from major cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa in Israel, showing barrages of Iranian Ballistic Missiles coming out of the sky, making direct impacts on the ground, or releasing dozens of smaller sub-munitions (Cluster Bombs) which cannot be intercepted.
With Israel losing - again - President Trump tried to talk with Iran about a ceasefire. Iran flatly rejected even talking about it, and continues to attack both Israel, and numerous US military bases in countries throughout the Middle East.
Making matters worse, Iran has successfully targeted and destroyed FOUR (4) crucial American Radar Arrays deployed at bases in the Middle East, severely reducing the ability of the US and Israel to get advance warning of inbound Iranian missiles.
The U.S. only had eight (8) THAAD (Terminal, high-altitude, area-defense) radar systems in the entire world - Iran has destroyed HALF of them in a week.
These radar arrays cost upwards of $1.2 Billion each. They each take slightly over one year to build, but replacements cannot be manufactured because they require Gallium - a rare earth metal - and China has cut-off the US from its Gallium supplies!
Over the weekend, Israel struck Iran oil infrastructure. In retaliation Sunday, Iran struck Israeli infra-structure: Orot Rabin in Hadera, Israel's largest power station. A complete power outage reported in Tel Aviv.
Orot Rabin generates 2,590 MW, roughly 19% of Israel's total electricity capacity. It sits on the Mediterranean coast, 45 km north of Tel Aviv, and feeds power to the entire central Israeli grid.
Markets see all these facts and are reacting to all of them, acknowledging that peace is not on the Horizon, Israel is losing, the US which began heavy bombing with B-52, B1b, and B-2 Stealth bombers, seems unable to do much more, and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
As such, markets are pricing oil based on a twenty percent reduction in Global Supply.
As prices for oil go up, the US and other economies continue to go down, and now Trump Administration officials are making inquiries about personal underground nuclear bunkers. Those officials know that Israel has a large number of undeclared nuclear warheads, and if Israel faces losing, they may attack Iran with one or more of them.
The markets also know that if Israel were to do that, they would likely be hit with nukes fired by Pakistan and/or North Korea. Which would likely cause the US to hit Pakistan and North Korea. Which would likely cause China, to then nuke the United States for attacking China's ally, North Korea.
Put simply, the world is in a real mess and it is getting very much worse. While things are falling apart, it's getting very much more expensive to live.
