NEW YORK, July 25, (V7N) – Brent North Sea crude fell back under $100 on Friday after surging past the key milestone the previous day on escalating Middle East strikes, helping US and European stock markets stabilise.

Brent dropped about four percent to under $97 a barrel, having soared seven percent on Thursday, while West Texas Intermediate declined more than three percent after gaining over six percent the day before. The sizeable jumps had come after Yemen's Houthi rebels struck oil tankers in the Red Sea, potentially opening a new front in the Middle East war.

Despite the United States launching fresh strikes on Iran, markets found relief that some ships were still able to pass through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. "Ships with Saudi crude are still crossing... so for now, it is not a full blockade, reducing a bit the risk of an even tighter oil market," Giovanni Staunovo, a commodities analyst at UBS, told AFP. A Houthi spokesman said Friday the rebels were not blocking traffic through the strategic strait.

On Wall Street, both the Dow and S&P 500 rose, while the Nasdaq retreated again amid another round of semiconductor selling. Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones described markets as buffeted by uncertainty over geopolitical events and questions about how the Federal Reserve will weigh the latest oil price jump, while David Morrison at Trade Nation noted expectations of a Fed rate hike at its next meeting have risen from 13 percent last week to 30 percent currently.

European markets advanced on Friday, while Asian stock markets followed Thursday's Wall Street sell-off, battered by the resurgent Middle East war, oil price spike, and concerns about the AI boom.

Key figures around 2020 GMT:

- Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 3.9% at $96.78/barrel
- West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 3.1% at $89.31/barrel
- New York - Dow: UP 0.5% at 51,947.25
- New York - S&P 500: UP 0.1% at 7,411.98
- New York - Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.6% at 24,975.82
- London - FTSE 100: UP 0.9% at 10,736.23
- Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.9% at 8,372.28
- Frankfurt - DAX: UP 1.4% at 25,099.00
- Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.7% at 64,611.15
- Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0% at 24,963.23
- Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 1.6% at 3,814.20
- Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1373
- Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3323
- Dollar/yen: DOWN at 163.84 yen