Overview
- - Brent surged back above $100 and WTI neared $96 after Iran’s new supreme leader signaled a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, triggering broad equity declines from Asia to Wall Street and steep drops in European bank shares.
- - The International Energy Agency approved a 400 million barrel release from strategic reserves and the U.S. will add 172 million barrels from its SPR starting next week, yet energy markets remained volatile.
- - Argentina’s February CPI was 2.9% with core at 3.1%; analysts estimate Brent at $90–$95 could add roughly 1–1.5 percentage points to monthly inflation, with education and fuel seen pressuring March, as Economy Minister Luis Caputo framed current readings as a relative-price correction.
- - Argentine assets fell alongside global risk: the S&P Merval slipped, ADRs and sovereign bonds declined, and risk premium rose to about 561 basis points, while Coninagro’s new dashboard flagged the dairy sector as in crisis with producer prices effectively frozen.
- - Peru’s Camisea pipeline rupture has driven gas rationing and extreme dispersion in LPG cylinder prices in Lima (S/30.30 to S/120); the central bank held its policy rate at 4.25% and warned of temporarily higher inflation, BBVA Research cut 2026 growth to 2.9%, and the sol closed at S/3.4485 per dollar.