Houthi attacks on tankers push Brent above $100

Analysts highlight NextEra power demand and Repsol margins

Brent crude settled at $100.69 a barrel Friday, a 7% gain that marked the highest close since May 22, after Houthi militants in Yemen attacked Saudi tankers in the Red Sea. West Texas Intermediate rose 6.2% to $92.19 a barrel, the highest since June 4. MSI previously reported on July 23 that oil topped $100 and Wall Street slid in a broad selloff as the Strait of Hormuz closure and a tech rout converged.

The attack threatens a shipping route that Saudi Arabia has been using for its exports “since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” ANZ Research analysts wrote. The strait was effectively closed to Saudi crude shipments earlier this summer. President Trump earlier in the week said the U.S. would hold Iran responsible for future Houthi attacks.

“Globally oil could go higher … and that’s quite likely unless things calm soon,” Ellen Fraser, an energy analyst at consulting firm Baringa, wrote in a note, pointing to low global stockpiles, including in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In afternoon trading, Brent was down 2.8% to $97.89 and WTI down 2.3% to $90.09 as traders trimmed positions ahead of a weekend that “could bring major developments of either a bullish or bearish nature,” Ritterbusch & Associates wrote. The firm sees rising odds of renewed ceasefire talks, but added that “we feel that such events are more apt to skew bullish than bearish.”

ANZ commodity strategists warned that the oil market’s buffers — including a sharp reduction in Chinese crude imports — have so far prevented a more disorderly price response but could be overwhelmed if regional disruptions intensify. They maintained their end-of-third-quarter Brent forecast of $92 a barrel but said that Brent could rise toward $120 if the conflict spills beyond crude shipping. Capital Economics said China is likely able to draw down inventories and sustain historically low import levels for several more months, possibly into 2027. Economist Hamad Hussain said the decline reflects the end of a stockpiling streak rather than weaker end-user demand from rising electric-vehicle adoption.

Singapore’s core inflation is expected to tick higher to around 2% this month following a 17% electricity tariff hike, Maybank economists wrote, noting that “the lagged pass-through of higher energy, logistics and imported input costs from Gulf War shocks are still filtering through to prices.” Core inflation reached 1.6% in June, up from 1.4% in May.

In company-specific reports, Melius Research wrote that NextEra Energy is strongly positioned to capture power demand from the artificial-intelligence boom after the company reported a soaring second-quarter profit. NextEra should easily meet both its base case and an upside scenario for power generation by 2035, and its pending tie-up with Dominion Energy is poised to create a U.S. energy giant, the analysts said. “Power demand in the US is entering its steepest growth cycle in a generation, inflected upward by the AI datacenter buildout, electrification, and reshoring,” they wrote. “NEE is structuring itself to be the only company with the balance sheet, supply chain, and operating platform to meet that demand at scale.”

UBS analyst Henri Patricot wrote that Spanish energy major Repsol’s second-quarter results exceeded already-elevated expectations, with the company fully capturing extremely high refining margins and with no planned maintenance in the third quarter. UBS raised Repsol’s stock price target to €26 from €23 and lifted its 2026 buyback forecast to €1.1 billion from €1 billion. Repsol shares fell 2.5% to €26.01 on Friday.

Forsyth Barr said power generator Mercury NZ’s strong end to its fiscal year means it will comfortably beat earnings guidance after expanding profit margins through improved electricity trading. Hydro-generation volumes ran 18% above average in the quarter and wind-power output was 6% higher than a year earlier. Forsyth Barr expects underlying earnings of NZ$1.069 billion in fiscal 2026, about 2% above company guidance.

Euroz Hartleys said it expects Beach Energy to pay dividends of A$0.04 per share in fiscal 2026, about 33% above the consensus forecast of A$0.03, though both would represent a steep drop from the A$0.09 declared in fiscal 2025. Analyst Declan Bonnick said investors are looking for either a meaningful inorganic reserve addition or a move back to improved distributions. The firm has a hold call on Beach and cut its price target by 8.9% to A$1.02 per share; Beach ended Thursday at A$0.885.