Finance & Banking — Iran Crisis and Fed Meeting Drive Oil to $106, Testing Financial Markets' Resilience

Finance & Banking · 2026-03-17

The convergence of geopolitical tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and the Fed's penultimate meeting under Powell's leadership is creating a perfect storm for financial markets. With oil prices surging to $106, banks face a complex risk environment where energy sector exposure, inflation expectations, and monetary policy uncertainty intersect. The situation echoes Ray Dalio's "pre-1945" parallel,…