Oil prices climb but don't soar after U.S. strike, Iranian threats

Yes, but: The rather modest movement also suggests traders aren't putting much stock — for now — in reported calls by Iran's parliament to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would require approval from top regime officials.

• The strait is the critical waterway between Iran and Oman that handles roughly a fifth of the global oil trade.

Driving the news: The global benchmark Brent crude is up roughly 2.4% to nearly $79-per-barrel after initially jumping above $81 when markets opened.

• The Israel-Iran conflict has sent prices to their highest levels since January.

What they're saying: The Brookings Institution's foreign policy director Suzanne Maloney, in a post, called the Iranian parliamentary call to close Hormuz "purely symbolic."

• "[S]uch a step would further cripple its own battered economy and jeopardize its fragile but valuable rapprochement with Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states along the Persian Gulf," she writes.

What we're watching: The effect on U.S. gasoline prices, which today average roughly $3.21 per gallon, as the July 4 holiday weekend nears.

• Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said via X that gasoline prices are "likely to continue moving higher, but inching up instead of spiking."