Houthi Strikes on Riyadh Push Brent Crude Above US$106 as Saudi Arabia Warns of Serious Response

Oil prices rose sharply on Monday, 12 October, after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement launched fresh strikes on Saudi Arabia’s capital, compounding concerns about tight global energy supplies ahead of the northern hemisphere winter.

Several powerful explosions struck Riyadh on Monday night, following a series of Houthi attacks on Riyadh airport in recent days that officials said had killed at least 18 people. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, speaking at a high-profile conference in Riyadh, acknowledged that the kingdom’s infrastructure and resilience had been tested by the attacks. “Energy security can’t be taken for granted,” he said. “The events of recent weeks are serious, our response must be equally serious.”

Brent North Sea crude climbed 1.8 per cent to US$106.65 per barrel by around 2020 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate rose 2.1 per cent to US$93.74 per barrel — a gain of roughly two per cent across the oil complex.

Russia-Ukraine energy truce remains in doubt

Further unsettling energy markets was mounting uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s claim of an “energy ceasefire” between Ukraine and Russia, which he announced alongside a deal to buy diesel from Moscow. Russia on Monday declined to confirm whether any such agreement had been reached, a day after Trump’s unilateral announcement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed back on social media, stating that Russia had attacked six energy facilities in Ukraine on Monday alone, wounding 33 people across the country. “It is increasingly evident that Russia is unwilling to accept an energy ceasefire proposed by the United States,” Zelenskyy said.

Neil Wilson, a strategist at Saxo UK, described oil as “well bid above US$100 after strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh airport over the weekend, while efforts to secure a Russia-Ukraine energy truce were muddy.”

Mixed session for global equities

Global equity markets turned in a mixed performance on Monday as investors looked ahead to major US corporate earnings and economic data later in the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.4 per cent at 51,850.55, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent to 7,807.24 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4 per cent to 27,245.90.

Sam Stovall of CFRA Research said investors were “holding their breath waiting for confirmation that the market was justified in setting a new all-time high on the S&P 500,” adding that the week’s inflation data was a particularly important focus. An unexpectedly high inflation reading, he said, could raise the odds of another Federal Reserve interest rate increase in October.

European indices fared better. London’s FTSE 100 gained 1.0 per cent to close at 10,656.28, Frankfurt’s DAX rose 0.8 per cent to 25,277.68, and the Paris CAC 40 edged up 0.4 per cent to 7,832.88. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 0.3 per cent to 24,271.20, while the Shanghai Composite declined 0.4 per cent to 3,797.24. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was closed for a public holiday.

The start of the US corporate earnings season was also in view, with JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America due to report on Tuesday. Companies in the S&P 500 are expected to post a 24.3 per cent rise in earnings per share compared with the third quarter of 2025, according to CFRA. Technology companies were set to follow later in October and November, with traders focused on the outlook for the artificial intelligence sector.

In currency markets, the euro fell to US$1.1156 from US$1.1200 on Friday, the pound slipped to US$1.3207 from US$1.3234, and the dollar rose against the yen to 158.68 from 158.31.