NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices soared on Monday after attacks on crude facilities in Saudi Arabia sparked worries over the impact of an oil shock on economic growth, halting a positive run in world stocks as investors reached for less risky assets.
Increased demand for safe-haven U.S. debt pushed Treasury yields lower, while gold and the safe-haven currencies, including the Japanese yen and Swiss franc, strengthened.
The attack on Saudi Arabia shut 5% of global crude output. U.S. officials blamed Iran and President Donald Trump said Washington was “locked and loaded” to retaliate.
Oil prices surged nearly 20% at one point on Monday, with Brent crude posting its biggest intraday gain since the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis, before paring gains to trade up about 10 percent on the day.
Trump approved the use of U.S. emergency oil reserves to ensure stable supply, helping steady oil prices some.
“This justifies a risk premium on the oil price, so prices are initially unlikely to return to the levels at which they were trading before the attacks,” said Carsten Fritsch, oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, Germany.
U.S. crude rose 11.43% to $61.12 per barrel and Brent was last at $67.26, up 11.69% on the day.
Saudi Arabia officials are discussing delaying Aramco’s initial public offering, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The upheaval in the oil market coupled with and poor economic data from China served to sour investors’ appetite for risky assets.
The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, snapped a five-day winning streak to trade down 0.29%.
