Talk of the Town
New permit filings detail a proposed 100-billion-dollar digital infrastructure campus at Berry Hill, billed as Virginia’s largest investment on record. Plans call for up to 21 data centers, requiring about three thousand megawatts of power, and two natural gas power plants. The project at the Southern Virginia Megasite is expected to bring 25 hundred jobs to Southside.
(NEW YORK) — Global oil prices surged on Wednesday after an Iranian attack elicited a vow of reprisal from President Donald Trump, ending a brief calm that had renewed hope among investors of a negotiated resolution.
A benchmark index for worldwide crude prices climbed more than 7% on Wednesday, crossing above $90 a barrel.
Major stock indexes, meanwhile, tumbled. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 710 points, or 1.3%, while the S&P 500 increased 0.6%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.8%.
Oil prices account for a large share of the price of auto gasoline. The average price of a gallon of gas currently stands at $4.09, according to AAA, marking a 37% jump since war broke out in late February.
Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. will respond to an overnight missile attack launched by Iran.
“We’ll be hitting them [Iran] hard,” Trump told Fox News.
The U.S. intercepted an “attempted surprise attack” involving multiple ballistic missiles, which targeted U.S. forces in the Middle East on Tuesday, according to U.S. Central Command.
Oil prices have swung dramatically over recent weeks in response to on-again, off-again fighting.
Last month, oil prices briefly fell to their lowest level since before the war on news that a preliminary peace agreement had been reached.
A resumption of large-scale fighting between the U.S. and Iran, however, cast doubt over the staying power of that deal.
Shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz declined sharply as the war escalated. The maritime trading route facilitates transport of about one-fifth of global oil supply. In turn, worldwide oil prices soared above $100 a barrel.
Another round of price relief arrived on Monday after the U.S. paused attacks on Iran over the weekend, but the resumption of fighting on Tuesday rekindled price gains.
The Iran war set off a jump in overall inflation due in large part to a rise in oil prices and, in turn, fuel costs.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who took the helm of the central bank in May, has repeatedly vowed to slash inflation to the Fed’s desired level of 2%. The annual pace of price increases currently registers at 3.5%.
“Persistently high prices are a burden for the American people,” Warsh told reporters in Washington, D.C., last month. “This committee will deliver price stability.”
The Fed stands poised to issue a decision on the level of interest rates on Wednesday afternoon.
It could raise interest rates in an effort to cool off prices, but the move risks a slowdown of hiring.
Futures markets peg a roughly 66% chance of interest rates being left unchanged on Wednesday, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, a measure of investor sentiment. Odds, however, stand in favor of a quarter-point rate hike in September, the next time central bankers meet.
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(NEW YORK) — The average price for a gallon of diesel was still hovering around a record-high of $6.43 as of Friday morning, according to the latest data published by GasBuddy.
The historic increase in the price of diesel comes amid continued disruption in the Strait of Hormuz — sparked by the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran in February — and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which in recent years has seen an intensification of long-range Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil facilities.
The sustained increases in oil and diesel prices have prompted concerns of rising costs across all sectors of the economy — from fuel and energy costs for drivers and homeowners to increased prices of food and travel as producers and companies grapple with narrowing margins.
The nationwide average price for a gallon of regular gas was at $4.47 as of Friday, according to GasBuddy — up $1.53 since the U.S. war with Iran started.
Rising prices are of particular concern for those households reliant on heating oil. They could face winter bills more than 31% higher than last year, according to a report published earlier this week by the non-profit National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
Even for those who do not heat their homes using oil, overall winter heating costs are expected to rise by more than 8.7% this year, the NEADA report said.
As of Friday, oil prices were edging lower but remained above $100 a barrel. Brent crude oil prices, a benchmark for global trading, were around $103 per barrel, down roughly 1.3%. WTI crude oil, used as the North American benchmark, was trading at around $102 per barrel down 0.4%.
Since diesel is the lifeblood of the supply chain, a rise in fuel costs may result in higher prices charged by wholesalers in response to elevated transport expenses. In turn, retailers could pass those costs along to shoppers, raising prices on shelves.
The price hike for any individual item would likely be modest, but the pileup of extra costs across an array of goods could weigh on wallets, analysts previously told ABC News.
As a result, the rise in diesel costs threatens to worsen a surge of inflation set off by the outbreak of the Iran war nearly seven months ago.
The annual inflation rate stood at 3.4% as of August, the most recent month on record, putting inflation more than a percentage point above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2023 in an effort to contain price increases. Higher borrowing costs may constrain spending among businesses and consumers, staunching demand for products and slowing price hikes.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh acknowledged the rate increase would not directly address the surge in fuel prices. Rather, he said, elevated interest rates could help prevent price hikes from extending throughout the economy.
“We cannot affect any individual price, whether it be oil prices, whether it be food stuffs at the grocery store. But what we can do, and will do, is ensure that any change in relative prices don’t broaden out,” Warsh said.
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