Saudi oil attack
Fitch downgrades Saudi credit ratings over military tentions
The agency said in a statement it had lowered Saudi Arabia's long-term foreign-currency issuer rating from A+ to A, with a stable outlook.
The Automobile Association is warning that the price of petrol may rise again next week.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi for talks on Wednesday focused on attacks on the kingdom's oil infrastructure, which Washington has blamed on Iran.
The United States on Friday imposed another round of sanctions on Iran, including on its central bank which was already blacklisted.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have already blamed Iran for the 14 September strikes that initially halved Saudi oil output. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement has claimed responsibility.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have further escalated after an attack last weekend on Saudi oil facilities that initially disrupted half of the oil production from the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, and was blamed on Tehran by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
While it carries out repairs, the world’s biggest oil exporter has promised to keep the physical crude market supplied from its inventories held in the kingdom and abroad, estimated to have been about 180 million barrels in July.
Trump said on Twitter that he had ordered the US Treasury to “substantially increase sanctions” on Iran, which denies carrying out the attacks, and told reporters the unspecified, punitive economic measures would be unveiled within 48 hours.
Riyadh, which is bogged down in a five-year war against Tehran-aligned rebels in neighbouring Yemen, has said that the weapons used were Iranian-made, but has not directly blamed its arch rival.
Vice President Mike Pence announced that Pompeo was on his way to the kingdom to 'discuss our response.'
The French president stressed that it is necessary for the world not to show weakness toward these attacks.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.13 % while Japan’s Nikkei was flat.
Trump said he was ready to help key ally Saudi Arabia after the weekend drone attacks, which triggered a record leap in global oil prices, but would await a 'definitive' determination on who was responsible.
The attack on Saudi oil facilities on Saturday not only knocked out over half of the country’s production, it also removed almost all the spare capacity available to compensate for any major disruption in oil supplies worldwide.