Crude hits $106 as Strait of Hormuz closure enters second month

Brent reached $106.01, up $2.34 in a day and roughly $39 above year-ago levels, as the Hormuz closure persists and a third US carrier strike group arrives in the region. The angle: the war premium is no longer a spike — it's the new floor, and importing economies (Pakistan, India, Egypt) are absorbing it through subsidies and FX pressure. Lead with the YoY delta and the structural shift from 'spike' to 'baseline,' then the downstream pain points in Global South energy importers.