The Gulf and beyond: oil, capital, and geopolitics.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped 19 basis points to 7.49 percent for the week ending October 2, the highest in nearly three years, while purchase applications sank to their lowest since February 2025.
State-owned Syrian Petroleum Co. plans to more than double crude output to about 250,000 barrels a day by the end of 2027 from roughly 110,000 now, CEO Yousef Qiblawy said in an interview published October 7.
Iraq's state tanker company loaded 2 million barrels of crude onto a chartered very large crude carrier and moved it beyond the Strait of Hormuz, the first such operation in decades and a break from the FOB Basra sales model.
About 9 million barrels of Iranian crude moved through ship-to-ship transfers off Malaysia in September, leaving roughly 10 million barrels in floating storage, the last major buffer outside a US blockade that has stopped new loadings since mid-July.
Yemen's Houthis attacked Aden International Airport with ballistic missiles and explosive drones on Wednesday, one landing near the runway minutes before a Cairo flight was due to land and forcing a diversion to Jeddah.
Gold slipped 1.1 percent to $4,140.60 as the Aden airport attack lifted crude, Qatar moved empty LNG ships into the Gulf, and Bloomberg reported rival gold-hub pitches from Hong Kong and Singapore.
Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia invoked their Mecca Alliance for Defence for the first time on October 5, agreeing to rapidly deploy agreed forces to Saudi Arabia after Houthi attacks on the kingdom.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim tables Malaysia's 2027 budget on Friday, with analysts expecting a mildly expansionary package aimed at cost-of-living relief ahead of elections that could come as early as next year.
Tanker freight surged 5.5 percent as the Hormuz casualty event and a fatal Black Sea sinking repriced energy-transport risk, while uranium miners and Broadcom led a risk-on equity tilt.
Treasury's October 5 third round of sanctions removals and updates cleared a long tail of stale Saddam-era Iraq entries and legacy Colombia narcotics designations from OFAC's list, alongside an Iran-related alert and an amended FAQ.
The EIA expects US households heating with oil to pay about 21 percent more this winter, its 2026 Winter Fuels Outlook released October 6 says, while the energy-assistance directors association puts the increase at 31 percent.
The Strait of Hormuz tanker campaign produced its first casualty event Monday, with a dozen seafarers injured in a projectile strike on the Panama-flagged tanker On Peace, as UKMTO detailed five incidents and the IRGC ordered another vessel to turn back.
Saudi-backed Yemeni forces claimed to capture Mocha and Dhubab near the Bab al-Mandeb strait on Oct 5-6, while Saudi Arabia confirmed Houthi projectiles wounded three civilians at two airports near the Yemen border.
The US Treasury on Oct 2 designated Germany-based Saleem al-Zaq, a France-based charity controlled by Oualid Barika and his son, and a crypto-based transfer scheme under E.O. 13224, in a coordinated action with the FBI.
A vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz was struck by an unknown projectile late Saturday, catching fire and forcing a crew evacuation, in the latest attack on commercial shipping in the corridor.
The US Treasury on October 1 designated Iran's automotive and rail sectors under Executive Order 13902, hitting Iran Khodro, Saipa and the Islamic Republic of Iran Railway Company with secondary sanctions, and separately designated the Russia-linked A7 payments network a transnational criminal organization.
Titan Australia Mining's binding A$1.15-a-share cash offer for Global Lithium , a 73 percent premium valuing the company at about A$333 million, remains on track toward a December shareholder vote.
OPEC+ kept November production targets unchanged at its October 4 video meeting, the second straight month of no change, holding the seven members' combined quota at 31.01 million barrels a day.
Gulf oil flows excluding Iran averaged 81 percent of pre-war levels in September at 19.2 million barrels a day, led by a Saudi rebound from 4.2 to 6.6 million b/d, with crude exports at 91 percent of pre-war even as refined-fuel shipments lagged at 60 percent.
Brent crude climbed from $72 to a peak of $109 a barrel in the third quarter while US refinery margins ran far above year-ago levels, the EIA said Monday.
With 29 days to the midterms, forecasters give Democrats an 80-in-100 chance of taking the House while the Senate sits at 52-in-100 for Democrats, with Maine, Texas, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota as the tipping-point races.
OPEC+'s seven core members agreed Sunday to keep November oil output targets unchanged, extending the freeze to a second month as the Iran war keeps actual Gulf production roughly 5 million barrels a day below pre-war levels.
Infrastructure investors at SuperReturn Asia said they would rather lend against AI data-center power than own the equity, with Gulf states pitching cheap energy access to attract the build-out.
Gold fell about 1 percent on Friday to around $4,162 an ounce as the 10-year Treasury yield held at 5.28 percent and the dollar stayed near 18-month highs.
OPEC+ agreed in principle to keep November production targets flat, dropping even the modest 137,000-barrel-a-day increment, and pushed the 2027 capacity-and-quota framework review to mid-November.
Brent held near $103 while WTI sagged to $91, an $11 spread that maps the geography of the disruption.