Two UAE Tankers Attacked in Strait of Hormuz — Oil Rebounds to End the Week, Renewing Energy-Shock Risk to Fed Policy

Two ADNOC-operated tankers were struck by drones late Thursday into Friday while transiting the Strait of Hormuz; the UAE's Foreign Ministry blamed Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, calling the attacks 'acts of piracy' and a 'flagrant violation' of freedom-of-navigation principles. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Center reported both vessels suffered only minor damage with no casualties. It is the second such attack in less than a week — ADNOC reported a similar strike on Aug 8 — bringing the total to 15 ADNOC vessels attacked while transiting the Strait since the US-Israel war with Iran began in February. Oil prices, which had eased earlier in the week alongside the cooler PPI and CPI prints, rebounded to end the week on renewed Gulf supply-risk concerns, re-injecting energy-driven inflation risk into the Fed's rate-path calculus just as soft retail sales and a crumbling consumer-sentiment reading were pulling the recession-risk narrative in the opposite direction.