Trump headlines the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday, hours after American forces struck Iranian tankers and Brent crude passed $100 a barrel.
Traders marked Brent at $101.35 at 11:05 ET. Reuters had it above $100 at 11:22. They left the American grade, West Texas Intermediate, at $96.38, and it has not crossed.
Drivers pay first. AAA put the national average at $4.22 a gallon on Wednesday. Drivers paid $3.19 a year ago. The Energy Information Administration put its weekly average at $4.157, up 96.5 cents in twelve months.
Investors sold. The Dow fell 420 points by 11:34 and the S&P 500 lost half a percent. Bond traders drove the ten-year Treasury yield to 4.837%, a 52-week high set this morning.
Trump signed five Canada proclamations on Tuesday evening banning Canadian alcohol, motorcycles over 800cc and whey from 29 September, which is the second bill Americans will pay this month.
A hundred dollars a barrel is a disaster too big to ignore, and the convention is the backdrop: a party filling a Dallas ballroom while the economy comes apart outside it.
CNBC spent Wednesday morning inside Trump's own financial disclosures, counting what nine oil and gas holdings did between the eve of the war and the end of August — down to the date one account sold Exxon, and what he announced two and a half hours after the closing bell.
