Crude-oil futures surged on Thursday with both the U.S. and international benchmarks jumping above $100 for the first time since 2014, as Russian troops and tanks pushed into Ukraine and airstrikes hit the country’s capital an attack on Ukraine authorized by President Vladimir Putin authorized in a televised address to his nation.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery
CLJ22,
+7.63% CL00,
+7.63%
surged $7.77, or 8.4%, to trade at $100 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after closing 0.2% higher on Wednesday. -
April Brent crude
BRNJ22,
+7.97% BRN00,
+7.46% ,
the global benchmark, traded $7.66, or 8.1%, higher at $101.71 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, with both international and U.S. contracts trading around highs not seen since 2014. -
March natural-gas futures
NGH22,
+4.95% NG00,
+4.95%
rose 6.1% to around $4.91 per million British thermal units.
Market drivers
The Russian attack in Ukraine is viewed as the largest such military operation since World War II and is likely to spark concerns about supply disruptions, during a period of uncertainty in the global economy underpinned by COVID worries and extant supply-chain bottlenecks.
