Crude oil futures rose more than 1% on Thursday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel\u2019s military to intensify attacks against Iran.<\/p>\n
U.S. crude oil was last up $1.36, or 1.81%, to $76.50 per barrel by 9:38 a.m. ET, while global benchmark Brent added $1.10, or 1.43%, to $77.80 per barrel. Prices have gained more than 11% over the seven days since Israel began pounding Iran\u2019s nuclear and missile programs.<\/p>\n
Follow along for live coverage<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Netanyahu ordered Israel\u2019s military to intensify attacks on \u201cstrategic targets\u201d in Iran and \u201cgovernment targets\u201d in the country\u2019s capital, Tehran, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a social media post. The goal of the strikes is to \u201cundermine the ayatollah\u2019s regime,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s decision to escalate its military operation against the Islamic Republic comes after an Iranian missile reportedly struck a major hospital in the southern city of Beersheba. Katz threatened Iran\u2019s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the wake of the hospital strike.<\/p>\n Katz said Israel\u2019s military \u201chas been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist,\u201d referring to Khamenei.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump is still considering whether to order a U.S. strike on Iran\u2019s nuclear program. \u201cI may do it, I may not do it, I mean nobody knows what I\u2019m going to do,\u201d Trump told reporters Wednesday. <\/p>\n JPMorgan warned on Wednesday that regime change in a major oil producing country like Iran could have a profound impact on global oil prices. Iran is one of the top producers in OPEC.<\/p>\n \u201cIf history serves as a guide, further destabilization of Iran could lead to significantly higher oil prices sustained over extended periods,\u201d Natasha Kaneva, head of global commodities research at JPMorgan, told clients in a note.<\/p>\n Supply losses in the wake of a regime change \u201care challenging to recover quickly, further supporting elevated prices,\u201d Kaneva said.<\/p>\n\n Crude oil futures rose more than 1% on Thursday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel\u2019s military to intensify attacks against Iran. U.S. crude oil was last up $1.36, or 1.81%, to $76.50 per barrel by 9:38 a.m. ET, while global benchmark Brent added $1.10, or 1.43%, to $77.80 per barrel. Prices have gained more <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":35955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}