● BRENT CRUDE TOPS $110 FIRST TIME SINCE MAY

Brent crude settled at $109.86 a barrel on Friday, up 3.7% on the day and its highest level since May, after attacks near the Strait of Hormuz and Saudi oil infrastructure piled onto a collapsed Russia-Ukraine energy truce. Crude is now up more than 75% this year, and funds tracking the benchmark like $BNO are sitting near their best levels of 2026. Washington's answer was to release up to 17 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a stopgap against a rally traders do not expect to cool off soon.