Oil Prices are Suddenly Jumping: Here's Why

Both the international Brent and domestic West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil indexes rose by over 3% overnight, and people are wondering why. Crude price have hovered in a narrow, low trading range for weeks now with only minor movements up and down even as US oil inventories have fallen precipitously across 7 straight weeks.

Reuters quotes Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank as saying, "There are several drivers today. Longer term, the market is focused on the prospect for additional sanctions. Short term, the weather is very cold across the U.S., driving up demand for fuels."

The cold weather piece of that explanation makes perfect sense, as does an expectation for harsher sanctions on Iran being levied once Donald Trump is sworn in as the United States’s 47th President. Trump has repeatedly slammed the Biden administration for failing to enforce US sanctions in Iran, enabling the Jihadist regime to obtain billions of dollars in funding for its global terrorist activities. There is little question Trump will reverse that unwise decision and look for new ways to punish the regime that was behind the Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel and which has long funded Hamas, Hezbollah, and many more terror cells and deadly attacks around the globe.