(Bloomberg) -- Oil ramped higher after further attacks by Iran and its proxies on U.S. and Saudi assets in the Middle East prompted President Donald Trump to warn the Islamic Republic had made “a very big mistake.”
Front-month futures in New York were up 1.8%, after surging 5.4% on Thursday after Iran shot down an American drone just a week after two tankers were targeted in the region. Meanwhile, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they hit a Saudi Arabian power plant with a cruise missile, at least the third such attack on the kingdom’s infrastructure in a week.
Trump appeared to downplay the Iranian drone downing, saying a “loose and stupid” individual -- rather than Iran’s top leaders -- may have been culpable.