US is considering using "mother of all bombs" against Iran, according to source cited by CNN

Reports of this kind, sourced to unnamed officials and aired while an operation is under consideration rather than executed, sit in a familiar category: signaling leaks that have historically served as much to shape adversary behaviour and domestic opinion as to preview actual use. Escalatory rhetoric of this order has tended to put a risk premium into crude through the supply-disruption channel rather than through any actual loss of barrels, with the pivotal variable being Iranian retaliation against Gulf energy infrastructure or shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, where a large share of seaborne crude transits and where insurance and freight costs reprice well before physical flows are interrupted. The distinction worth drawing is between the weapon itself, a conventional munition with no direct commodity footprint, and what its use would imply about willingness to strike hardened targets and the probability of a broader regional exchange. In comparable past episodes the first reaction has run through front-month crude, gold, and the usual haven currencies, with the move tending to fade when no supply loss materialises and to extend when retaliation touches tankers or production assets. The follow-ons that matter are confirmation or denial from official channels, any movement in Gulf shipping insurance rates, and the Iranian posture in response. As a single-source report of deliberation, the signal is about escalation probability, not intent.