CNBC Daily Open: Ship struck and Strait shut
A dramatic escalation in tension over the Strait of Hormuz drives oil prices and risk assets higher in early trade.
AbJimroe
Ships and tankers in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, April 18, 2026.
Stringer | Reuters
Hello, this is Leonie Kidd writing to you from Singapore (yes, that's right — not London this week!). Welcome to another edition of CNBC's Daily Open.
Flying into Singapore over the weekend gave me a front row seat to the literal sea of cargo ships sitting idle in the Port of Singapore. Hopes that tanker traffic could resume with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz were dashed before engines could even fire up. And now, any resumption looks even less likely following a spike in tanker attacks launched by Iran, as well as a U.S. strike on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship.
Early trading in equities is remarkably stable, but as Europe and the U.S. come online, it will be interesting to see if the risk-off trade accelerates across global markets.
What you need to know today
A U.S Navy guided missile destroyer fired on and disabled an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman before Marines boarded and seized the vessel, U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday.
Trump said that the USS Spruance intercepted the Iranian ship, the Touska, and "gave them fair warning to stop."
"The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom," Trump said in a Truth Social post.
The escalation in tensions follows a dramatic weekend that saw the Strait of Hormuz declared open by Iran, only to be closed again.
The volatility has played out in oil markets, with crude prices surging in early trade.
The reaction in stocks has so far been more muted, with a mixed trading session across Asia, while pre-market indicators for both Europe and the U.S. main markets moved lower.
In political news, it looks set to be a tough Monday for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He is due to make a statement in the House of Commons in a bid to explain how Peter Mandelson became the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. even after he failed a security screening.
Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Warsh, meanwhile, is preparing for his confirmation hearing set to be held in front of the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. If confirmed, he could be the wealthiest Federal Reserve Chairman in U.S. history.
