Oil Hits $100, Tom Lee Spots the Bottom—Crypto Just Sips Its Coffee

Oil prices are having a moment, breaching the $100 club while most of us weren't looking. WTI climbed 6.8% to $103, Brent 6.4% to $101, and heating oil decided to show off with a 7.8% gain. Not your typical Tuesday pump. Meanwhile, Bitcoin was probably scrolling Twitter, utterly unbothered, waiting to see which way the macro winds blow before deciding whether to care.

The Strait of Hormuz, that narrow little waterway roughly 40% of global oil traffic pretends to live on, is basically a no-go zone right now. No clear navigation routes, no quick fix in sight. This isn't a flash crash—analysts are pointing at structural disruption. The kind that makes you recheck your shipping calendars and wonder if your NFT portfolio is suddenly going to need an oil tanker to transport it to safety.

Over in Europe, Macron is doing Macron things, calling for urgent diplomacy to restore open passage through Hormuz. No effort must be spared, he says, because a prolonged closure would make everyone uncomfortable in ways that matter. Presumably "uncomfortable" is French for "our gas prices doing things that make voters ask uncomfortable questions at dinner."

Starmer confirmed more than 40 nations are now coordinating to safeguard global shipping. The UK and France are co-hosting a summit to deploy a multinational protection mission. Because apparently it takes a village to keep oil tankers moving. NATO's group chat is probably exploding with notifications right now, all those nation-states sliding into the DMs asking who brought what to this naval potluck.

Meanwhile, Tom Lee of BitMine is out here maintaining his bullish thesis. Despite the Hormuz chaos and failed US-Iran talks, he's calling potential market bottom behavior. Oil's acting "heavy," WTI sits $15 below recent peaks, and equities are showing resilient vibes. Somewhere, retail traders are screenshotting this tweet for their evidence file labeled "reasons to stay bullish in 2024."

"More signs equities have bottomed," Lee noted. Bold call for a market currently sandwiched between geopolitical fires and diplomatic chess. It's like calling the bottom while standing in the middle of a four-alarm fire and a chess tournament—technically possible, but you'd want some receipts.

Jim Cramer summarized the mood: "If the bond market doesn't mind it, then I don't mind it." Comforting, right? Nothing says confidence like delegating your market analysis to fixed income markets. The bond market doesn't have