Drone hits chemical tanker in the Indian ocean, Iran blamed

<p>The global shipping market is certainly top of mind as we celebrate a holiday weekend. Yemen continues to threaten the Red Sea but now there are worries about a wider threat to shipping. Iran said it could shut down the Gibraltar Strait, which is something that most people doubt. At the same time, the latest attack defies belief.</p><blockquote>"The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. GMT) yesterday in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran," a Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters.</blockquote><p>Either Iran had some very bad intel, the Pentagon is playing games or Iran is playing an incredibly stupid game.</p><p>In any case, the stakes for global shipping and the oil market continue to rise. I'll be interested to see how crude trades in the next few days.</p>

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.