Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk.
Oil is the story driving price action this weekend, with crude surging sharply after the United States and Iran escalated their exchange of strikes near the Strait of Hormuz. Traders are pricing in a genuine supply disruption risk, as Tehran declared the strait closed while Washington insists it remains open. That uncertainty is enough to push futures higher and rattle equity markets, with U.S. stock-index futures slipping into the red heading into the Monday open.
The geopolitical picture is further complicated by significant turbulence in Washington's Senate leadership. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of President Trump's most prominent congressional allies and a forceful advocate for an assertive U.S. foreign policy, has died at seventy-one from an aortic rupture. His passing creates immediate uncertainty around key legislative priorities for Republicans, with a narrow Senate majority leaving little room to absorb the loss.
Separately, Senator Mitch McConnell has broken weeks of silence over his health, confirming he suffered a fall that led to his hospitalization and that he is now recovering in a rehabilitation center. McConnell, eighty-four and the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, says doctors are still working to determine the underlying cause.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
