Four Fingers News — Thursday, July 16, 2026
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Thursday, July 16, 2026
FROM THE EDITOR · July 16, 2026
Day 139. Eighty-one years ago this morning, out in the New Mexico desert, we set off the first bomb and turned the sand to glass — the anniversary lands a little heavier from inside a war. So forgive me if I’m not buying the optimism. Strikes are into their sixth day, the Strait is still shut, and there are envoys in Oman sketching a “two-lane plan” for a waterway that right now moves almost nothing. Washington says June’s deal is over, then keeps negotiating the corpse of it. I’ll believe the lanes are open when a tanker actually uses one. Brent’s climbing, the S&P just printed another record, and the distance between those two numbers is the whole story. Glasses up.
— T.
The Dispatch
Updated Thu Jul 16 · Morning Edition
HORMUZ
Iran Threatens to Halt All Regional Energy Exports as U.S. Strikes Reach Day Five
The U.S. ran a fifth straight day of strikes Wednesday and held its renewed blockade of Iranian ports, and Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard answered that the region’s oil and gas will move “for everyone or for no one” — stretching the threat from Hormuz to every export corridor it can reach. Brent crude pushed to about $86 a barrel overnight, up from near $70 before the escalation began. Washington says the strikes are degrading the coastal missile and drone units Iran has fired at tankers; Tehran says the U.S. blockade is what closed the strait.
MARKETS
Bank Profits Swell on War Volatility as Goldman Books a Record
Goldman Sachs jumped 7.3% after Middle East turbulence drove its equities desk to a record quarter, while JPMorgan and Bank of America also beat and Wells Fargo and Citigroup slipped on otherwise solid results. The S&P 500 closed Tuesday at 7,543, and futures edged higher again Wednesday as chipmaker ASML lifted the AI trade.
RED SEA
Bab el-Mandeb Emerges as Iran’s Next Pressure Point
With Hormuz shut, analysts say Tehran is signaling it could lean on its Houthi allies to squeeze the Bab el-Mandeb strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, a second artery for Saudi crude and Suez-bound trade. A Yemeni official warned that closing both straits together could send oil toward $200 a barrel.
FED
Wholesale Prices Cooled in June, Handing Warsh Room to Wait
Producer prices fell in June for the first time since last summer — diesel dropped 18% and crude 12% during the ceasefire lull — a backward-looking cooldown markets read as cover for the Fed to hold at its Jul 28-29 meeting. New Chair Kevin Warsh, just off his first Senate testimony, has signaled no rush to move.
NORTHWEST
Washington Pump Prices Hit a Record $5.57 as the War Reaches the Corner Station
AAA put the statewide average at an all-time-high $5.57 a gallon, with King County at $5.82, as Hormuz disruption stacks on top of Washington’s carbon fees and fuel tax. Drivers here are paying more than a dollar over the national average, and analysts are dusting off comparisons to the 1970s.
ALL-STAR
American League Blanks the National League 4-0 Behind a 15-Strikeout Bullpen
Dylan Cease opened and 10 relievers followed with a three-hit, 15-strikeout shutout at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, one night after the National League’s sluggers ran the Home Run Derby. Seattle’s Mariners sat out the break and pick the season back up this weekend.
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