Crude oil prices (CL=F, BZ=F) are whipsawing as geopolitical conflict in the Red Sea, led by Yemeni Houthi rebels, intensifies.
Yahoo Finance's Madison Mills takes a look at the energy sector this morning from the New York Stock Exchange.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: And here's the opening bell on Wall Street. Some excitement as we kick off the trading day. Of course, we're seeing some muted action though at the open as investors really remain on the sidelines ahead of tomorrow's key inflation report. Taking a look at the bond market, we had the 10-year yield just below that 4% level.
We've got team coverage for Yahoo Finance's Madison Mills standing by on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Jared Blikre is standing by at the interactive with a closer look at some of these moves. Maddie, let me go to you first. I know you're closely tracking the moves that we're seeing in oil. What are you looking at?
MADISON MILLS: So much whipsawing in the oil space this week, Seana. I was just trying to reload my platform here because I'm seeing on my end that Brent Crude is up 7/10 of a percent. WTI is down 3/10 of a percent. That just indicates to me more volatility in this space.
Now, part of this is, of course, geopolitical. We know that there were more attacks from the Houthis in the Red Sea overnight. This comes after building tensions in the region, which is impacting shipping.
Now, where are we going to see the impact of that? Likely in the CPI print to come tomorrow. Will the challenges and the shipping costs start to impact consumer prices?
We might get a hint of that. We may have to wait until the next CPI print. But that's why we're clearly watching the oil market.
Now, again, reversing earlier gains from this week, we saw that on Tuesday there was an advance of about 2% on oil to 77 bucks a barrel. Still seeing more volatility in this space today as the market continues to try and suss out what the geopolitical risks combined with the fact that the US oil supply continues to dwindle and what that means for the overall price here. Another thing throughout your trading day to take a look at solar stocks. I'm looking at Enphase Energy today to see how alternatives to energy might get a boost following some of the volatility that we're seeing in the oil market, which could pressure investors to look beyond oil for alternative energy spaces.
