Oil prices rise and stocks fall after US hits Iranian sites in the Strait of Hormuz

BREAKING: Oil prices rise and stocks fall after the US strikes Iranian sites in the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States has struck Iranian military sites in the Strait of Hormuz.

That's from AP tonight, and the markets reacted the second the headline crossed. Oil jumped. Stocks fell. That's the reflex you get when the shooting starts at the narrowest chokepoint in the global energy trade, the strait that carries roughly a fifth of the world's oil every single day.

We don't yet know how many sites were hit, or whether anyone was killed, and I'm not going to guess at either. What we do know is the pattern of the past week, drones over the Gulf, gas prices at multi-year highs, and now direct American strikes on Iranian positions in the water itself.

Every escalation so far has been answered. The question tonight is whether Tehran treats this one differently, because the last country to try closing Hormuz never actually managed it. Nobody has ever wanted to be the first.

This is Kateryna Kovalenko, reporting for HIT.