The Brent crude $120 risk became a live conversation in energy markets on Wednesday, as oil prices surged close to $100 a barrel following the destruction of five Iranian tankers by US forces and a fresh exchange of military strikes with Iran in the Gulf of Oman. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.55% to $99.44 a barrel, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for October delivery climbed 1.75% to $94.66 a barrel.The moves came a day after US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed it had destroyed five crude oil carriers belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).…
Author: Helen Rourke
Helen Rourke
Helen Rourke trained as a chartered accountant and spent fourteen years in financial services before starting to write. She qualified at a mid-tier firm, moved in-house to a media company's finance team, and spent her last years as a finance director at a creative agency, which gave her an unusual vantage point on both sides of the balance sheet. She writes about personal finance, tax, pensions, and the money questions people ask at dinner parties but never ask their accountant. She explains numbers without condescension and has no interest in making simple things sound complicated. Helen lives in North London. She files her own tax return on the first day it opens and considers this a character flaw.
Jim Cramer says he is keen to add to his position in FedEx Freight, but the stock’s exposure to FedEx Freight oil pressure is keeping him on the sidelines for now. Speaking during the CNBC Investing Club Morning Meeting on Tuesday, Cramer said the stock has to get clear of rising oil prices before he is comfortable buying more. ‘I very much want to buy’ more FedEx Freight, Cramer said, before adding that the stock first needs to shake off its sensitivity to crude. He attributed the company’s recent share price slide not to management missteps but to broader concerns…
A Nats air traffic control failure is causing severe disruption to flights across the United Kingdom and Ireland, with departures paused or heavily restricted at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, East Midlands and Dublin airports. Nats, the organisation responsible for managing airspace over the UK, said it was investigating a fault in its flight processing system and had engineers on site working to restore normal operations.Heathrow saw departures initially paused around lunchtime. Traffic briefly resumed before further disruption took hold in the afternoon, and it is understood that very few flights are currently taking off. With aircraft unable to depart, landings are…
Iran’s foreign ministry has launched a sharp attack on Canada over the Iran Canada Hormuz dispute, accusing Ottawa of ‘a display of strategic confusion and submission to intimidation’ for backing US-led efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The rebuke came from Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei, posting on X, and landed at a moment when Canada’s own relationship with Washington is under acute strain.The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes. Efforts to keep it open to commercial traffic have drawn in a widening…
The Chris Rokos Greece move has placed one of Britain’s biggest individual taxpayers at the centre of a debate about whether the UK can hold on to ultra-wealthy residents, with reports confirming he plans to transfer his residency to Athens and open an office there.Rokos was ranked third in The Sunday Times list of Britain’s top taxpayers, having paid £330 million to HMRC last year. His departure, first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by The Guardian, comes just weeks before Chancellor John Healey’s first Budget on 28 October.What Greece’s non-dom regime actually offersThe draw is straightforward: Greece allows foreigners…
The US Iran oil price surge pushed Brent crude above $100 a barrel for the first time in months on Wednesday, as markets absorbed the fallout from a weekend of military strikes between American forces and Iran that have rattled global energy supply routes.According to the Wall Street Journal, front-month Brent crude settled up 3.4% to $101.21 a barrel on Wednesday, while front-month West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 3.2% to $96.05 a barrel, the highest closing levels for both benchmarks since 22 May. That followed Tuesday’s already elevated readings, when Brent gained 1.1% to $97.00 a barrel and WTI…
At 1,350 metres above the Pustertal valley, with the peaks of the Dolomites visible on the southern horizon and South Tyrol’s number one ski mountain at the door, Hotel Kristall – Kronplatz Resort in Geiselsberg above Valdaora – offers a specific and rare combination: an outdoor pool and a panoramic whirlpool positioned to face a Dolomite panorama that guests describe as among the most beautiful they have ever seen from a wellness facility. But what distinguishes Kristall from the many hotels that claim a pool and a mountain view? The Outdoor Pool and Whirlpool: Designed Around the View At Hotel…
The 21 Air Miami runway crash that killed five people and seriously injured five others on Sunday is now the subject of a federal investigation, after a Boeing 767 freighter overran the end of the runway at Miami International Airport, crossed a road and struck several vehicles on the ground. The plane burst into flames shortly after coming to rest.The incident happened just before 14:00 local time. The aircraft had arrived from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, operated by 21 Air, a charter company based in North Carolina, on behalf of Amazon. Three of the…
Houthi strikes on Saudi Aramco’s refining complex at Jazan helped drive oil prices to a six-week high on Monday, as a weekend of exchanges between the United States and Iran deepened an already volatile situation across the Middle East. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.3% to $97.52 a barrel, touching $97.93 at its peak, the highest level since 23 July. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, climbed 1.3% to $92.68, briefly surpassing $93 a barrel, also a level last seen in late July.Houthi strikes on Saudi Aramco take Jazan refinery offlineWhile initial reports left responsibility for the Jazan attack…
JLR job cuts 2026 will see 4,000 roles eliminated over the next two years as the carmaker faces a simultaneous squeeze from US tariffs, Chinese competition and the fallout from a cyberattack that halted production for more than a month last year.The redundancies will fall mainly on head office staff in the UK. Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors and operates 17 sites in England, employs about 43,000 people globally, according to Reuters. Of that total, around 34,000 are based in Britain, making the scale of any domestic impact hard to overstate.Who is affected by the…
