Oil stocks were in the spotlight on Friday after a targeted military strike killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, considered the architect of the Islamic Republic’s military expansion in the Middle East.
The ensuing surge in crude-oil prices could be beneficial to those companies that produce crude and its byproducts, with that view giving some buoyancy to energy stocks. However, the moves for the oil-pegged funds are more muted in the aftermath of the killing of Soleimani, which could intensify conflicts in the Middle East, when compared with concerted drone strikes on Sept. 15 that briefly took out Saudi Arabian Aramco facilities, briefly shutting down 5% of the world’s global oil production.
RBC analyst Helima Croft said during a Friday interview on CNBC that if the attack had taken place five years ago, oil would have soared above $100 a barrel.