Oil Near $98, But 10 Ships a Day Is the Number That Actually Matters

Brent crude ran to $97.93 overnight and OPEC+ declined to add supply, but the number that actually explains this market is 10: the daily average of commodity ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the lowest since May. No very large crude carrier has exited since Wednesday. Here's why spare capacity can't fix a chokepoint, how diesel carries this into the inflation data, and the four signals that would prove the thesis wrong.