Commodities Wrap 8 September: Attacks on Saudi Energy Sites Lift Brent to a Six Week High Near 100 Dollars
Crude oil climbed to a six week high on Tuesday after attacks on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia threatened Gulf supply, with Brent crude settling at 97.92 dollars a barrel, up 0.9 percent and its highest close since 23 July, after touching a session high of 99.46 dollars, and US West Texas Intermediate settling at 93.03 dollars, up 1.7 percent, per Reuters. Precious metals went the other way, with gold slipping more than 1 percent, so the day divided cleanly between a geopolitical bid for oil and no safe haven bid for precious metals, on our reading.
A supply scare lifted crude
Oil climbed after Iran aligned Houthi militants in Yemen attacked energy facilities in four southern cities of Saudi Arabia, setting oil installations ablaze and forcing a temporary halt to some operations, per CNBC. The kingdom’s energy ministry said the strikes caused fires at several sites and temporary shutdowns while crews secured the facilities and assessed the damage, and its foreign ministry affirmed the kingdom’s right to take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty, its national assets and its people. Saudi authorities said more than 70 people were injured. Both benchmarks are now up more than 8 percent so far in September, and the day left Brent at its highest close since 23 July and West Texas at its highest since 4 June, on the same reporting, though prices pared their earlier gains as higher fuel costs revived worries about inflation and interest rates. Banks have marked up their forecasts on the supply risk: Goldman Sachs raised its December Brent and West Texas targets by 5 dollars, to 85 and 80 dollars, and said Brent could exceed 120 dollars in 2027 if Gulf output stayed about 4 million barrels a day below prewar levels, though that is not its base case, per CNBC.
| Contract | Settlement | Change |
|---|---|---|
| WTI Crude, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a barrel | $93.03 | +1.7% |
| Brent Crude, ICE (Nov’26), dollars a barrel | $97.92 | +0.9% |
Settlements on Tuesday 8 September 2026, ranked by change; West Texas rose 1.55 dollars and Brent 92 cents, leaving West Texas at its highest close since 4 June and Brent at its highest since 23 July, with a session high of 99.46 dollars. West Texas is measured against Friday’s settlement, as CME derived no settlement on Monday’s US Labor Day holiday; Brent’s change is measured against Monday’s closing reference.
Gold and silver found no safe haven bid
Even as the geopolitical premium lifted crude, the metals did not follow. Gold, captured after the settlement window, was down 1.32 percent and silver was little changed, a divergence on a day of fresh hostilities that suggested shifting rate expectations were outweighing geopolitical haven demand, on our reading: traders raised the odds of a Federal Reserve interest rate rise at next week’s meeting to about 60 percent, from about 50 percent before last week’s strong jobs report, per Reuters. The wider board was mixed, with copper and platinum higher while palladium fell close to 3 percent, all on levels captured after the settlement window.
| Contract | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Copper, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars a pound | $6.8025 | +1.80% |
| Platinum, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars an ounce | $1,841.00 | +0.82% |
| Silver, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $66.64 | -0.16% |
| Gold, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $4,417.30 | -1.32% |
| Palladium, NYMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $1,364.00 | -2.84% |
COMEX and NYMEX metals, front month contracts, captured after the settlement window at 19:21 GMT on 8 September 2026 and measured against Friday’s settlements, as CME derived none on Monday’s US holiday; these are electronic levels struck after the settlement, not exchange settlements.
Why it matters: The day put a fresh geopolitical premium back into oil, on our reading: an attack on energy facilities in the Gulf is among the clearest direct supply side risks the crude market watches, and it carried Brent to within a fraction of 100 dollars before the settle pared the gain. Brent pulled back from that high as Saudi authorities said some operations had been temporarily halted and damage was still being assessed, and as higher fuel costs revived rate worries, so the market priced an immediate supply scare without clear evidence yet of a prolonged outage, on our reading. The narrower signal was that oil carried the geopolitical risk premium while gold and silver, which often catch a safe haven bid on days like this, instead slipped, which points to rate expectations still setting the tone for the metals.
Outlook: The near term path for crude turns on the scale and duration of any supply disruption and on whether hostilities widen, on our reading, with the market now pricing a larger risk premium than a week ago. A quick restart of the affected Saudi operations would let the premium fade, while any sign of lasting damage or a spread to shipping lanes would keep it in. For the metals, the question is whether firm rate expectations keep outweighing geopolitics, since the safe haven bid that usually accompanies an escalation did not appear on Tuesday.
Sources: CNBC, Reuters, The Edge.
