Brent Holds Near $110 as Russian Refinery Attack Squeezes Diesel and Tech Stocks Lose $1 Trillion

Since Brent first touched $110 on Friday, Oct. 16, the damage has spread from the crude futures screen to the diesel pump and the stock market.

Brent ended the week at $109.86 a barrel, its highest closing level since May 19. West Texas Intermediate closed at $101.41, up 3.5% on the day and above $100 at the close for the first time since September.

Diesel is the pressure point

The sharpest pain is in diesel. AAA put the national average above $6.30 a gallon on Friday, nearly $2.70 higher than a year ago. Regular gasoline averaged about $4.33.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said on X that Americans have spent $135 billion more on gasoline and diesel since March 1 than in the same period last year.

Diesel futures rose more than 1% on the day. Fuel for farming and industry has climbed faster than gasoline in recent months.

The Strait of Hormuz closure that followed the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran in late February started the broad run-up in fuel prices. NBC News reported that the Russia-Ukraine war has since driven an even steeper spike in diesel specifically.

Russia has long been one of the world's biggest diesel exporters. Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure have taken much of its refining capacity offline.

Another Russian refiner goes down

On Friday another Russian refiner suspended some crude operations. The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine had "attempted a massive attack on the Ryazan oil refinery."

Russian strikes have also hit energy assets inside Ukraine.

Refineries in the U.S. and Europe are already running near maximum capacity to produce diesel. There are few clear places to add output.

President Trump has tried to bring prices down, including through a deal with Russia for it to increase its diesel supply to the global market. Russia and Ukraine are both defying his proposed energy ceasefire, and Ukraine keeps hitting Russian refineries.

Tech takes the hit

The Nasdaq 100 fell 2.5% Friday and sits about 7% below the record it set only last week. NBC News calculated that tech shares lost more than $1 trillion in value on the day.

The S&P 500 dropped 1% and the Russell 2000 fell 1.6%.

The Philadelphia semiconductor index fell 3.8%. That was its eighth straight losing session, the longest such streak since 2008.

NBC News tied the selloff to renewed worry over ballooning debt, high interest rates and rising oil prices, and to investor questions about when the huge cash injections into AI companies will pay off. No single cause has been established for Friday's drop.

The Fed problem

The Federal Reserve raised rates by 0.25% in September to tame inflation that had been pushed up by higher oil and gas prices. NBC News reported that continued energy gains raise the likelihood of another hike this year.

Higher rates add pressure on heavily indebted tech and AI firms at the same moment fuel costs are climbing for households and businesses.

How far the market has swung

Brent peaked above $120 in late April. It sank below $80 for much of June and July, during a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that each side accused the other of violating.

The war is now approaching its eighth month, and crude has climbed back above $100.

Whether Trump's Russian diesel arrangement and his proposed energy ceasefire can hold while Ukrainian drones keep hitting Russian refineries is unresolved. So is whether the Fed answers the oil-driven inflation with a second hike.

No government or agency has announced a plan to add diesel capacity, and refiners in the U.S. and Europe have little room left to expand output.