Iran keeps targeting American bases as U.S. interceptor stockpiles dwindle

The cost of Brent crude, the international benchmark price for oil, fell back under $100 on Friday after a rough rise throughout the week.

The cost dipped about 4% as of 2 p.m. ET to about $96. The cost had reached $101 on Thursday, its highest level since May. Costs were still up about 8% this week.

The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to Iranian threats on shipping vessels combined with the Iran-backed Houthis targeting two Saudi-flagged oil tankers in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea, had caused further panic in the industry. But the Houthis have not targeted any ships since the initial two, possibly bringing some calm back to investors.

Prices had fallen from well over $100 into the $70 range after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a memorandum of understanding in June and reopened the Strait of Hormuz.

Americans are currently paying $4.11 per gallon of regular on average nationwide, according to AAA, up from $3.16 at this time a year ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Trump in Washington next week, according to the prime minister's office.

Netanyahu will leave for Washington, D.C., on Monday and meet with the president at the White House on Tuesday, his office said.

The prime minister will also attend the funeral for Sen. Lindsey Graham, who he described as "a friend of Israel." Graham often served as a conduit on behalf of the U.S. to the Israeli government and wider Middle East.

Netanyahu last visited the U.S. in February. He met with Mr. Trump at the White House on that visit as well, just days before launching the initial strikes on Iran.

The U.S. has issued new sanctions against Babak Zanjani, an infamous Iranian billionaire who is now allegedly helping Iran avoid previous sanctions and fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"Today's action targets four individuals and nine entities tied to Zanjani's operations," Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said in a press release. "Zanjani's re-emergence as a regime-linked financier — despite previously receiving a death sentence in Iran for embezzlement — demonstrates the lengths to which Iranian state-affiliated elites will go to preserve access to the international financial system so that they can enrich themselves, even as they mismanage the Iranian economy."

Zanjani was sentenced to death for allegedly embezzling millions from the National Iranian Oil Company, but that sentence was commuted in 2024 and he emerged as a major backer of the regime last year, according to the U.S. Treasury