The U.S. has denied a claim by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that its forces struck two American vessels.

The Guard had said it struck the ships, along with eight oil tankers in the Gulf, in retaliation against the U.S. for destroying five Iranian tankers on Tuesday. It said the targeted vessels had attempted to cross an area of the Hormuz Strait it had designated “forbidden and unsafe,” according to a statement published by semiofficial Tasnim News Agency.

But U.S. Central Command responded later on Wednesday, saying, “No U.S. Navy warship has been struck; all IRGC attempted attacks failed.”

“Meanwhile, U.S. forces have successfully destroyed 10 Iranian tankers in just the last week. These vessels were part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC, and Iran cannot defend them,” Centcom added on X.

Brent crude hits $100 a barrel

The conflict pushed Brent crude to $100 a barrel on Wednesday, as the two sides traded strikes along one of the world’s most critical oil corridors.

The U.S. strikes on Iranian crude oil tankers on Tuesday followed the Revolutionary Guard firing ballistic missiles at an American warship twice over the past two days, according to Centcom.

The U.S. warship successfully evaded Iranian attack, and no American personnel were harmed, Centcom said in a statement Tuesday.

U.S. forces struck four tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Centcom said. They are the M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1 and M/T Riesco. The military hit the M/T Derya near Iran’s Kharg Island. “American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable,” Centcom said.

The U.S. and Iran have traded new attacks in the Persian Gulf in recent days, rekindling hostilities in the region even as the Trump administration shifts its strategy toward defeating Tehran economically.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in a post on X late Tuesday, dismissed the U.S. sanctions as a rehash of a failed strategy. “After failing to achieve its aims through sanctions or war, Washington’s ‘novel’ solution is…more sanctions. Seriously?”

The U.S. military destroyed three Iranian tankers on Saturday in retaliation for the Guard firing ballistic missiles at an aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer. Those attacks also failed, Centcom said.

Earlier Tuesday, Centcom said an unmanned submersible that Iran reportedly seized in the Strait of Hormuz was “defective” and carried no sensitive data or classified equipment.

“An underwater drone operated by U.S. forces malfunctioned more than a day ago,” U.S. Navy Captain Tim Hawkins told CNBC in a statement shared by U.S. Central Command.

The drone “was surveying regional waters in support of ongoing operations,” Hawkins said, adding, “U.S. operations in area waters continue.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had boasted earlier Tuesday that it trapped and captured “one of the most modern, intelligent, unmanned submarines of the American terrorist army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz,” according to a translated post from Iranian state news outlet Fars.

Fars later posted videos and images purporting to show the vessel out of the water.

But Hawkins’ statement insisted that the drone was hardly a crucial piece of cutting-edge military tech.

“The defective drone was an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment,” the captain’s statement said.

Iranian media outlets described the sub as a Dive-LD, an autonomous undersea vehicle developed by U.S. defense contractor Anduril. They cost $2.5 million each, DefenseScoop reported in 2024.

“Dive-LD is an attritable autonomous system, meaning it is designed from the outset to operate in dangerous environments where loss of the vehicle is an expected possibility,” an Anduril spokesperson told CNBC when asked about the drone seizure. “Its purpose is to keep warfighters out of the most dangerous parts of the undersea mission. This vehicle had already delivered significant value operating thousands of hours in months-long operations in CENTCOM.”

The spotlight on the watercraft offers the latest example of the U.S. military’s increasing dependence on autonomous tech to fight the war in the Middle East.

This summer, unmanned boat startup Saronic used one of its drone vessels to rescue crew from a helicopter downed in the Hormuz Strait. Saronic’s boats were later used in a strike on an Iranian submarine and ship facility.

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

Crude oil prices jumped more than 3% on Wednesday as fighting between the U.S. and Iran escalates in the Persian Gulf, raising investors’ fears that energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz will fall.

Brent futures

The U.S. military destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers Tuesday in retaliation for attempted attacks on an American warship. The U.S. warship successfully evaded Iranian attack and no American personnel were harmed, U.S. Central Command said.

Fuel prices are hitting new records in the U.S. as war in the Middle East escalates again.

Gasoline prices hit a Labor Day record high of $4.15 per gallon on Monday. Diesel is expected to hit $6 per gallon for the first time ever in the coming days, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, in a social media post Wednesday.

The escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict, now in its seventh month, is raising the risk of oil prices surging above $120 a barrel as attacks on shipping intensify, said Daan Struyven, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

Goldman’s base case remains for Persian Gulf exports to gradually recover as producers adapt to disruptions, including through alternative shipping routes and eventually additional pipeline capacity.

But the recent escalation has increased the chances of a more bullish scenario in which exports fail to recover in the coming months due to attacks on tankers, Struyven said.

The U.S. and Iran largely refrained from fighting for about a month after an outburst of violence in July. Washington has pivoted to applying economic pressure on Tehran. But fighting has erupted again as Iran continues to attack commercial traffic in and around Hormuz.

The AI buildout represents a “once in a lifetime” investment shift that is turbo-charging private markets appetite — and helping to drive a shift away from the traditional 60/40 equities-bonds portfolio mix. That’s the view of Fabio Osta, managing director and head of the alternatives specialists team, EMEA wealth at BlackRock , who said private markets are becoming “more accessible, more holistic and more transparent” for wealthy individual investors. As the traditional 60/40 equities and bonds portfolio mix comes under greater pressure amid supply shocks, inflation pressures and bond market volatility, alternative investments, like private markets, are moving into sharp focus. Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of this year’s IPEM Global conference in Paris, Osta said both institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals are showing “great appetite” for private markets. “We are entering a new continuum for blending public [and] private markets,” Osta told CNBC’s Karen Tso on Wednesday. “Today, private markets are entering a new era of growth,” he explained, adding that global alternative assets under management are expected to grow from $20 trillion to $30 trillion by 2030, powered by both institutional and wealth client appetite. “We are moving away from the traditional 60/40,” Osta said, adding that he is instead recommending a 50/ 30/20 equities, bonds, and private markets split for wealth clients. Osta sees the opportunity in the AI buildout as a core part of private markets exposure for investors. “We look at AI as an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity for our clients including institutional and wealth,” he said, adding that AI has evolved from a micro theme a few years ago to a macro theme today, which has implications across regions, sectors, and asset classes. BlackRock sees AI through the lens of three phases. “We are in the early innings of what is the buildout of AI, which requires scaled innovation,” Osta said. The second phase will be adoption, followed by a third phase of transformation over the next decade. He highlighted Mistral ’s recent 3 billion euro ($3.49 billion) fundraise, in which BlackRock was involved, as a “prime example” of AI-private markets tie-up opportunities. Osta also pinpointed the energy transition, demographics, and urbanization as “mega trends” shaping the private markets landscape. “Within that opportunity set, selectivity is really key,” he added.

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