Oil has been one of the stranger stories in markets this year. Crude topped $114 a barrel in April when the Iran conflict was at its worst, then retreated sharply once diplomacy moved in.
It has been climbing again since early July, up roughly 30% from that trough. Brent is now between $91 and $93 a barrel and has gained 13% in the past two weeks alone.
That is the backdrop for what Morgan Stanley's chief equity strategist said on Aug. 24. It is worth reading before it gets buried under the next data release.
Michael Wilson, Morgan Stanley's chief U.S. equity strategist, said a renewed oil spike is the single biggest near-term threat to American equities, Bloomberg reported.
His note was blunt. "Crude is the near-term risk, and it's asymmetric," Wilson wrote. Stocks get hurt more by a crude spike than they benefit from a crude dip. That is not a new observation. He first laid it out in a March 2026 note. It lands differently now that oil has been moving the way it has.
#crude #wilson
It has been climbing again since early July, up roughly 30% from that trough. Brent is now between $91 and $93 a barrel and has gained 13% in the past two weeks alone.
That is the backdrop for what Morgan Stanley's chief equity strategist said on Aug. 24. It is worth reading before it gets buried under the next data release.
Michael Wilson, Morgan Stanley's chief U.S. equity strategist, said a renewed oil spike is the single biggest near-term threat to American equities, Bloomberg reported.
His note was blunt. "Crude is the near-term risk, and it's asymmetric," Wilson wrote. Stocks get hurt more by a crude spike than they benefit from a crude dip. That is not a new observation. He first laid it out in a March 2026 note. It lands differently now that oil has been moving the way it has.
#crude #wilson
3 hours ago
