[MARKET UPDATE] Energy continues to climb, Brent Dec'26 to a USD 100.94/bbl high, weighing further on equity sentiment. Specifics light, potentially influenced by continued assessment of Iranian President Pezeshkian's UN speech in Middle Eastern outlets

The notable feature here is that the move is marked in a far-dated contract rather than the front month, which suggests the market is pricing a persistent risk premium into the curve rather than a spot tightness story; episodes driven by immediate physical disruption typically concentrate in the front and steepen backwardation, while back-end-led moves more often reflect tail-risk hedging. Speeches by Iranian officials at multilateral forums have a track record of moving oil only when they shift the perceived probability of escalation with Israel or of sanctions enforcement changing; rhetorical content alone has tended to fade. The transmission to equities runs through the inflation and margin channel, with energy the sector exception, and sustained crude strength of this kind has historically pressured duration-sensitive equities via the rates leg rather than the earnings leg. The follow-ons that have mattered in comparable sessions are any official comment from Gulf producers or Washington, tanker and insurance market signals around the Strait of Hormuz, and whether the move survives the European close into the US session, where thin-premise rallies have frequently been unwound.