# Oil-Gas Surge on Mideast Attacks, Fed Holds Rates Steady

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663863437), 19 Mar 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/58e85be7-dbb5-4043-afed-af80014dc0b3/c449dffd-a4fd-4148-8f4e-b41200342aec/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=27143354-63aa-4ac5-965d-af80014dc0d3

Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. Brent crude traded above $112 per barrel as strikes between Iran and Israel on critical energy facilities — which also caused extensive damage to the world's largest liquefied natural gas export plant in Qatar — raised concerns of a more lasting impact from the conflict. We speak to Sing Yee Ong, Bloomberg's Asia Energy Reporter. Plus - Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged and continued to expect one rate cut this year as they acknowledged increased uncertainty due to war in the Middle East. Chair Jerome Powell emphasized that to resume lowering rates, officials would have to see progress in reducing inflation, especially goods inflation that has been boosted by tariffs. We speak to David Finnerty, Bloomberg's FX and Rates Strategist. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
[0:11] Speaker 2: Welcome to the Daybreak Asia podcast. I'm Doug Chrisner. Oil
[0:14] Speaker 2: prices are trading higher due to an escalation of military
[0:18] Speaker 2: activity in the war with Iran. Earlier, Cutter reported extensive
[0:22] Speaker 2: damage at the complex housing the world's largest LNG export plant.
[0:27] Speaker 2: It was struck by an Iranian missile, and this strike
[0:31] Speaker 2: came just hours after Iran threatened energy facilities across the Gulf.
[0:35] Speaker 2: That threat, incidentally was issued after the US and Israel
[0:39] Speaker 2: struck the South Pars LNG field. South Pars is jointly
[0:43] Speaker 2: owned by Iran and Cutter. Cutter called to strike a
[0:46] Speaker 2: dangerous and irresponsible step, and later Cutter expelled Iran's military
[0:51] Speaker 2: and security attaches from the country. For a closer look
[0:55] Speaker 2: at what's happening in the LNG market, I'm joined by
[0:58] Speaker 2: Bloomberg's sing Yeong Singnique covers Energy. She joins us from
[1:02] Speaker 2: our studios in Singapore. Thank you for being here. Can
[1:05] Speaker 2: you describe for me what you're seeing in the LNG
[1:07] Speaker 2: market right now?
[1:09] Speaker 1: Thank you for having me well for ller G. Right now,
[1:12] Speaker 1: we're seeing, you know, prices being really elevated so ever
[1:17] Speaker 1: since Kata halted its production. We've seen Asian LNG prices
[1:22] Speaker 1: double and right now they're still at around that level.
[1:26] Speaker 1: It's pulled back a little bit, but it still remains
[1:28] Speaker 1: really high, and that is, you know, causing a lot
[1:31] Speaker 1: of buyers to wait and see. We already see some
[1:35] Speaker 1: Asian buyers not being able to secure cargos that they
[1:39] Speaker 1: need for the coming months.
[1:40] Speaker 2: So much of the conversation around the war has to
[1:43] Speaker 2: do with the Strait of Horror. Moves and the fact
[1:46] Speaker 2: that it's been effectively closed, give me a sense of
[1:50] Speaker 2: the LNG traffic that typically goes through the strait.
[1:55] Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's it's a really big impact. We're also
[1:58] Speaker 1: seeing about twenty percent and of LNG shipments go through
[2:02] Speaker 1: the Strait of Hormones. And of these shipments, actually a
[2:06] Speaker 1: lot of these shipments are towards Asia, so Asia is
[2:09] Speaker 1: actually seeing a lot of the impact.
[2:11] Speaker 2: One of the things that I remember about LNG that
[2:14] Speaker 2: it has to be cooled, liquefied, and then compressed when
[2:19] Speaker 2: it is transitd And in my mind, when you talk
[2:22] Speaker 2: about an environment where war is the central issue here,
[2:26] Speaker 2: it would be very, very dangerous to transport this kind
[2:30] Speaker 2: of cargo through a war zone, right.
[2:32] Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, So that's why we're seeing that, you know,
[2:35] Speaker 1: a lot of these cargoes there right now, they're stuck
[2:38] Speaker 1: in the Strait of hormones. We don't see any shipments
[2:41] Speaker 1: carrying energy passing through the strait at the moment, but
[2:45] Speaker 1: that's something that we're keenly watching up for.
[2:48] Speaker 2: I'm curious seeing you are other LNG producers stepping up
[2:51] Speaker 2: to compensate for the interruption of LNG out of the
[2:54] Speaker 2: Middle East.
[2:55] Speaker 1: Okay, so right now we're actually seeing like a lot
[2:58] Speaker 1: of the other major producers that includes some Australia and
[3:01] Speaker 1: the US, they're actually already running at almost full capacity.
[3:05] Speaker 1: So in that sense, it's really hard for them to
[3:09] Speaker 1: increase their production and to export more. And one big
[3:13] Speaker 1: impact that we're seeing right now is that in Asia,
[3:17] Speaker 1: parts of Asia, like South Asia and Southeast Asia, they
[3:20] Speaker 1: are seeing you know, hot weather and that might increase
[3:24] Speaker 1: gas consumption in the coming months. And then if we
[3:27] Speaker 1: look a little bit further ahead from May onwards, we
[3:30] Speaker 1: have countries like Japan, like Korea, they're gonna experience really
[3:34] Speaker 1: hot weather because of the summer, and that is also
[3:36] Speaker 1: gonna further strain the market because that will live guests
[3:39] Speaker 1: demand basically for like air conditioning, electricity, power demand, and yeah,
[3:44] Speaker 1: that we see like a real pain point there.
[3:47] Speaker 2: And European countries, I know, how heavily reliant on lerg
[3:50] Speaker 2: as well.
[3:51] Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And for Europe, we see that their stockpiling
[3:56] Speaker 1: season is coming up right in a few weeks, and
[3:58] Speaker 1: so that will sort of use the competition with Asia
[4:01] Speaker 1: for this limited poor supplies.
[4:04] Speaker 2: In terms of the actual price, can you talk to
[4:07] Speaker 2: me about how much we have seen a price appreciation
[4:10] Speaker 2: over the period where the war has been kind of prosecuted.
[4:14] Speaker 1: So for Asian energy prices, before the world broke out,
[4:18] Speaker 1: we saw spot prices treating it about ten dollars or
[4:22] Speaker 1: ten dollars plus, but right now they are above twenty dollars.
[4:26] Speaker 1: So in terms of Asian energy prices, that has you know, doubled,
[4:31] Speaker 1: and that is actually causing a lot of pain as
[4:34] Speaker 1: well for countries that are more price sensitive.
[4:36] Speaker 2: I'm wondering whether power producers have been able to switch
[4:39] Speaker 2: to an alternative fuel that they would use to create electricity.
[4:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's something really interesting that we're seeing. I mean,
[4:47] Speaker 1: like for Europe, they can depend a lot more on
[4:49] Speaker 1: renewables because they have a really huge share of wind power.
[4:53] Speaker 1: But for Asia, you know, the grid it's small, accustomed
[4:57] Speaker 1: to call. So we see actually a lot of countries
[5:02] Speaker 1: looking at coal as an option. So for example, we're
[5:05] Speaker 1: seeing Bangladesh has already you know, increased its coal fired
[5:09] Speaker 1: power generation, and then we have countries like Taiwan that
[5:12] Speaker 1: has mentioned it is looking at increasing that as well.
[5:16] Speaker 2: So the Lergy story is quickly becoming an inflation story,
[5:20] Speaker 2: is it not.
[5:21] Speaker 1: Well, what's the most important is that energy is central
[5:25] Speaker 1: to consumers because you know, we use power, we use
[5:28] Speaker 1: electricity everywhere. So this problem where Llergy is stuck in
[5:34] Speaker 1: the strait of hormones and where Qatar has effectively halted production,
[5:38] Speaker 1: it's going to affect the world in a sense that
[5:40] Speaker 1: consumers are going to see rising prices for electricity, and
[5:44] Speaker 1: you know, especially industries that use large amounts of electricity,
[5:49] Speaker 1: like for example, the semiconductor industry, they will see prices
[5:52] Speaker 1: increase quite a bit as well.
[5:54] Speaker 2: SINGI thank you so very much. We'll leave it there.
[5:56] Speaker 2: Bloomberg singing on Energy Reporter from Singapore. Joining here on
[6:00] Speaker 2: Daybreak Asia podcast. Welcome back to the Daybreak Asia Podcast.
[6:10] Speaker 2: I'm Doug Krisner. We turn next to the FED. Policymakers
[6:13] Speaker 2: left the FED funds rate unchanged and they continue to
[6:16] Speaker 2: expect just one rate cut this year. The Fed also
[6:20] Speaker 2: acknowledged increased uncertainty due to war in the Middle East.
[6:23] Speaker 3: Chair J.
[6:24] Speaker 2: Powell said it's simply too soon to know the scope
[6:27] Speaker 2: and duration of the potential effects on the economy. For
[6:30] Speaker 2: a closer look, I'm joined by Bloomberg strategist David Finnerty.
[6:34] Speaker 2: David joins us from our studios in Singapore. Thank you
[6:36] Speaker 2: for being here. This was not a surprise that the
[6:39] Speaker 2: FED Fund's rate was left unchanged so far, though, it
[6:42] Speaker 2: seems like the war has been a dollar positive story
[6:46] Speaker 2: because of what's been happening with crude oil. What is
[6:49] Speaker 2: your expectation, David, given everything that you heard from the Fed,
[6:52] Speaker 2: will the dollar remain strong or do you see some
[6:55] Speaker 2: sort of risk now that things could falter?
[6:58] Speaker 3: I think, I mean it's a RISKSU skew towards dollar strength.
[7:02] Speaker 3: At the moment, we don't see any near term end
[7:06] Speaker 3: to this warder on and with the escalation on the strikes,
[7:10] Speaker 3: all prices are pushing higher, which adding to inflation. Expectations,
[7:13] Speaker 3: and therefore you're seeing the expectations for market expectations for
[7:17] Speaker 3: FED rate cuts dial back quite severely. If you think
[7:20] Speaker 3: of before the war started, I think the market was
[7:23] Speaker 3: priceding sixty one basis points of FED rate cuts this year.
[7:26] Speaker 3: Now it's down to fourteen, so considerable adjustment being made.
[7:30] Speaker 3: And I think if you look at the FED dot
[7:32] Speaker 3: plot yesterday, there are signs in there that even yes,
[7:35] Speaker 3: one rate cut was predicted this year, which was in
[7:38] Speaker 3: line of expectations, and the same at the December dot plot,
[7:42] Speaker 3: there have been subtle adjustments for number of FED governors
[7:46] Speaker 3: predicting two rate cuts was reduced from eight in December
[7:49] Speaker 3: down to five. And then the long term or the
[7:52] Speaker 3: neutral rates we say, basically edged up from in the
[7:55] Speaker 3: dot plot edged up from three to three point one
[7:58] Speaker 3: two five percent. So the hawk is sentiment is starting
[8:01] Speaker 3: to build again. That could change, but you're seeing that.
[8:04] Speaker 3: So the idea of that that adds this idea of
[8:07] Speaker 3: dive back the expectations for red fray cuts, which is
[8:10] Speaker 3: dollars positive. So in the new term, yes, you would
[8:12] Speaker 3: save anything, not hugely unexpected what it did, but it
[8:16] Speaker 3: does add to the idea of that it's you know,
[8:18] Speaker 3: not a tail wind for dollar sentiment.
[8:21] Speaker 2: So, David, you and I both remember that coming out
[8:23] Speaker 2: of the pandemic, the FED held to this idea that
[8:26] Speaker 2: inflation was transitory, and at the end of the day,
[8:29] Speaker 2: it proved to be a lot stickier than people had imagined.
[8:32] Speaker 2: I'm wondering whether the risk for the market right now
[8:35] Speaker 2: is even when the dust on the war settles, there
[8:38] Speaker 2: are simply too many unknowns on the inflation story.
[8:41] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, there's obviously that's a worry that inflation
[8:44] Speaker 3: expectations become unanchored again and start to push higher again.
[8:49] Speaker 3: How it really comes back to again that how high?
[8:51] Speaker 3: How long? Like you know, if hypothetically the wars end
[8:54] Speaker 3: in two weeks, and you'd guess that oil prices would
[8:58] Speaker 3: drop quite quickly, and then so we go back. The
[9:01] Speaker 3: market moves forward very very quickly. Indeed, So it really
[9:05] Speaker 3: is this uncertainty of how long, and obviously we don't
[9:08] Speaker 3: have that answer, you know, too readily. It could go
[9:10] Speaker 3: on two weeks, it could be two months, it could
[9:12] Speaker 3: be six months. We just don't know at the moment,
[9:16] Speaker 3: and that's why I think keeping the market uncertain. But
[9:18] Speaker 3: what we do know is the longer it goes on,
[9:21] Speaker 3: that's certainly not good for inflation expectations, which you know
[9:24] Speaker 3: does put pressure on the FED certainly to leave rates
[9:27] Speaker 3: unchanged for upcoming meetings.
[9:30] Speaker 2: I'm wondering, given the level of uncertainty as a result
[9:33] Speaker 2: of the war, whether there is a risk small as
[9:36] Speaker 2: it may be, that the next to move on the
[9:38] Speaker 2: part of the FED is a rate hike. Is that
[9:41] Speaker 2: too much to say?
[9:42] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he can never say never. I think
[9:44] Speaker 3: Fed chair power is interesting. He certainly said, look, we're
[9:47] Speaker 3: not at that stage yet, and I think for that
[9:51] Speaker 3: to come to fruition you would need, you know, oil
[9:54] Speaker 3: prices to elevated for quite a long while, and that
[9:58] Speaker 3: really feed into inflation expect INFLA and ex inflation expectations.
[10:02] Speaker 3: So while you can never say never, I think at
[10:05] Speaker 3: the moment the sentiment is, look, we need certainly a
[10:08] Speaker 3: lot more data for that to happen. It will take
[10:12] Speaker 3: several months for that to feed through to economy. So
[10:14] Speaker 3: at the moment, the idea of a one rate cut
[10:18] Speaker 3: is still on the priced in is fair? The Fed
[10:22] Speaker 3: is saye, but as we know they've always said, look,
[10:24] Speaker 3: the data dependent. Ironically, now it's state dependent slash war
[10:28] Speaker 3: dependent how long this goes, And again we have an idea.
[10:32] Speaker 3: President Trump has indicated we may be nearing an end.
[10:37] Speaker 3: Whether that comes to fruish or not, we will see.
[10:39] Speaker 2: In terms of the currency behavior, I'm looking at a
[10:42] Speaker 2: euro at a buck fourteen a yen that's just shy
[10:46] Speaker 2: of one sixty against the greenback. What are the currency
[10:49] Speaker 2: crosses that you're looking at most closely.
[10:52] Speaker 3: Against consis So obviously, if you want to take dollar
[10:56] Speaker 3: out of the equation, which a lot of traders try to,
[10:58] Speaker 3: because you're basically just if you trained dollar, you're heavily
[11:00] Speaker 3: just trained headlines at the moment. So ones that certainly
[11:04] Speaker 3: popular are the Ossie crosses. The ossie given the RBA
[11:08] Speaker 3: sentiment of hawkish sentiment, so any Ossie costs certainly, Ossie
[11:12] Speaker 3: Kiwi has been a very popular coss that's been traded
[11:15] Speaker 3: relatively heavily. I say relatively because Ossie dollar Oussie dollar
[11:20] Speaker 3: versus the greenback was quite heavy trading because it's a
[11:23] Speaker 3: bit more liquid. But Ozzie kiwi's been a popular one,
[11:25] Speaker 3: and that's been just going high and higher. So that's
[11:27] Speaker 3: a popular trade. As side of that, you know, I
[11:30] Speaker 3: think you're looking at. You want to keep an eye
[11:32] Speaker 3: on certain of SMB. Today's your Swiss Frank. It's sort
[11:36] Speaker 3: of it has picked up from a bottom. But I
[11:39] Speaker 3: think the question is, you know with s and B
[11:41] Speaker 3: Swiss National Bank today, is you know they don't like
[11:44] Speaker 3: this the strong Swiss Frank. They said that several times.
[11:47] Speaker 3: You know how much you know, how I would alsay
[11:50] Speaker 3: hawkish because I don't think they're going to raise rates obviously,
[11:52] Speaker 3: but how much they pushed back are gone, you know,
[11:55] Speaker 3: on this Swiss Frank strength. I think that's gonna be interesting.
[11:57] Speaker 3: So that's another cost I'd keep an eye on.
[12:00] Speaker 2: David, we'll leave it there. It's always a pleasure. Thank
[12:02] Speaker 2: you so very much, a Bloomberg strategist. David Finnerty joining
[12:05] Speaker 2: us from Singapore here on the Daybreak Asia podcast. Thanks
[12:10] Speaker 2: for listening to today's episode of the Bloomberg Daybreak Asia
[12:14] Speaker 2: Edition podcast. Each weekday, we look at the story shaping markets, finance,
[12:19] Speaker 2: and geopolitics in the Asia Pacific. You can find us
[12:22] Speaker 2: on Apple, Spotify, the Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel, or anywhere
[12:26] Speaker 2: else you listen. Join us again tomorrow for insight on
[12:29] Speaker 2: the market moves from Hong Kong to Singapore and Australia.
[12:34] Speaker 2: I'm Doug Prisner, and this is Bloomberg

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