IRGC Says Third Oil Tanker Caught Fire in Strait of Hormuz

Iranian state media reported via Fars News that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck a third crude supertanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday morning, leaving the vessel on fire. According to the IRGC Navy, the vessel had disabled its navigation equipment and ignored direct naval warnings before trying to exit the strait, marking the third such strike reported in forty-eight hours. The energy tape reacted immediately. Front-month Brent crude futures advanced 2% on the session to reach $106.81 a barrel, while WTI crude futures climbed 2.03% to $93.71. That geopolitical premium is filtering straight into broad asset pricing: the front-month contract on gold slipped to $4,196.80, the dollar index ticked up 0.19% to 102.40, and the Cboe Volatility Index lifted 3.84% on the day to sit at 15.41. Energy spikes of this scale inevitably split dealer positioning along sector lines, and that fracture is showing up clearly across our options maps right now. SPY remains comfortably cushioned inside long gamma, trading at 778.47 against its gamma flip down at 772.22, with the call wall hovering overhead at 780 and the put wall at 775. On the broader index, dealers act as shock absorbers, selling pops and absorbing dips to keep realized intraday swings muted within an expected move of 0.71%. Tech is an entirely different book. QQQ trades at 747.83, pinned below its gamma flip of 748.32 and trapped in short gamma territory. In short gamma, dealer hedging works against stability rather than for it: dealers are forced to sell underlying shares as the tape retreats toward the 740 put wall, amplifying downside momentum instead of damping it. With front-month Brent pinned above triple digits, that short gamma pocket leaves tech exposed to accelerating headline risk if crude pushes higher, while the broader market rests on SPY's long gamma floor.