No Crude Tanker Crossed the Strait of Hormuz for the First Time, Brent Hits $88; Iran Market Pulse, Midday Saturday, August 15, 2026

1. Lead

For the first time since the regional crisis began, no crude tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, August 14, 2026 (23 Mordad 1405). Reuters, citing shipping-traffic data from Kpler and carried by Fars News Agency on Saturday, August 15 (24 Mordad), reported that only a handful of non-oil vessels transited the waterway, with no crude cargo among them. The halt came hours after ADNOC said one of its vessels, the third such incident in under two days, was attacked in the strait on Friday evening. Separately, US President Donald Trump said in a campaign speech in New York that he intends to declare the Strait of Hormuz "a territory of the United States," a claim Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi rejected. Brent crude, moving on these developments, reached $88.52 a barrel at 4:53 am Tehran time today. On the Tehran Stock Exchange, TEDPIX, which last traded Tuesday, August 11 (20 Mordad), is nearly flat near the 5,736,032 point band as of 10:59 am today after three non-trading sessions, while gold and coin prices, which had fallen versus yesterday this morning, turned higher by midsession.

2. Today's Snapshot

3. Today's Top Headlines

• No crude tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, the first such halt on record. (Reuters, citing Kpler, carried by Fars, Aug 15)
• A third ADNOC vessel was attacked in the strait in under two days, Friday evening. (ISNA, citing WAM, Aug 14)
• Trump says he will declare the Strait of Hormuz US "territory"; Iran: "not by tweet, not by aircraft carrier." (Al Jazeera, Aug 14)
• The US and Japan pulled the yen back from a 40-year low of 163 to 157 per dollar via coordinated intervention. (Al Jazeera, Aug 14)
• Citigroup keeps its 3-to-6-month $5,000 gold target but waits for a pullback before adding to its position. (Arzdigital, citing Citi, Aug 14)

4. Currency

Tehran's free-market dollar traded at a buy rate of 185,050 tomans and a sell rate of 186,900 tomans at 11:05 am today, little changed from this morning's rate (buy 185,550, sell 187,400 tomans, per the Tehran Gold and Jewelry Union and Alanchand), extending yesterday's stability. Globally, the Japanese yen, which fell to a 163-per-dollar low last week, its weakest since 1986, recovered to 157 per dollar by Wednesday, August 12 (21 Mordad) after the US Treasury and the Bank of Japan intervened jointly starting July 31 (9 Mordad); Al Jazeera reported it was the first joint US-Japan currency intervention since 2011. Live dollar rates are tracked on Sahmino's USD price page.

5. Gold and Coin

Tehran's gold and coin market has swung sharply today. The Tehran Gold and Jewelry Union's morning report, carried by Ecoiran, showed every gold and coin item down from yesterday. But by 11:05 am, according to Alanchand, 18-karat gold had risen 0.28% intraday to 19,183,710 tomans a gram and the new-design Emami coin had climbed 1.58% intraday to 192,500,000 tomans, meaning the market has reversed from this morning's decline. Globally, the gold ounce, which fell 0.5% Friday to $4,326.75 (Bourse News, citing Reuters), has risen to $4,376.48 today, up about 1.1% from Friday's close. The coin premium remains negative: the new-design Emami coin trades about 302,000 tomans (0.16%) below its intrinsic value and the Bahar Azadi coin about 4,802,000 tomans (2.49%) below, while the quarter and gram coins still carry positive premiums. Citigroup on Friday kept its three-month target near $4,500 and its six-to-twelve-month path to $5,000 an ounce, but said it will wait for a short-term correction before adding to its position (Arzdigital, Aug 14).

6. Bourse and Farabourse

TEDPIX last closed Tuesday, August 11 (20 Mordad) up 1.46% at 5,736,485 points, a seventh straight day of gains that took its year-to-date return to about 54%. After one holiday and a two-day weekend, the index stands at 5,736,032 points as of 10:59 am today, down 453 points, essentially unchanged and halting its recent run without a meaningful decline. The equal-weight index, however, is up 970 points, suggesting demand held up outside the largest names. Trading value on the Tehran Stock Exchange has reached about 26,800 billion tomans across more than 583,000 trades so far. The Farabourse composite index (IFX), a separate exchange from the Tehran Stock Exchange, rose 133 points (0.29%) to 46,061.99, with trading value of about 12,740 billion tomans as of 10:59 am. Today's individual-versus-institutional flow data has not yet been finalized by the exchange and will appear in Sahmino's next report.

7. Crypto

Bitcoin was little changed, up 0.21% at $63,096 as of 10:59 am today; Tether traded at 187,026 tomans domestically. Bourse News, citing Glassnode, reported that the share of transaction fees in bitcoin miners' total revenue has fallen to 0.52%, the lowest since 2016; Checkonchain data put the average cost to produce one bitcoin at $78,254 as of August 11 (20 Mordad), about 23% above the spot price, squeezing smaller miners. Elsewhere, trading firm GSR raised Solana's weighting in its Core3 fund to 43.7%, overtaking Ethereum (39.5%) as its largest holding (Arzdigital, Aug 15). Ripple's XRP, after falling below the $1 psychological level, has drawn whale buying, with analyst Ali Martinez saying large wallets accumulated more than 380 million tokens over the past week.

8. Iron and Steel

On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, the last settlement for A3 rebar sized 14-20mm cleared Tuesday, August 11 (20 Mordad) at a volume-weighted 67,563 tomans per kilogram, and the 22-32mm size at 68,872 tomans per kilogram; no new session has been held since amid the Wednesday-to-Friday closure. In the factory market, Aryan Foolad's 10mm A3 rebar is priced today at 70,000 tomans and its A2 grade at 69,910 tomans per kilogram, little changed from last week. Globally, Shanghai rebar edged up Friday to 3,018 yuan a tonne, pointing to steady Chinese demand.

9. Cars

Farshad Moghimi, deputy minister of industry, mining and trade and head of IDRO, said Friday that a new regulation on replacing aging vehicles takes effect next week; owners who scrap an old car for a new one will get financing of about 400 million tomans at roughly 8% interest over three years, without a lottery (Khabaronline, citing ISNA, Aug 14; more detail in yesterday's Sahmino report). In the market, the Pride 151 GX traded around 1.15 billion tomans today, little changed in recent days; the gap to the cheapest new factory car remains above 500 million tomans, per yesterday's Sahmino report.

10. Building Materials

On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, the last settlement for Type 2 (42.5) bulk cement cleared Tuesday, August 11 (20 Mordad) at 2,711 tomans per kilogram and the 50-kilogram bag grade at 3,950 tomans per kilogram; Type 5 bulk cleared at 2,890 tomans per kilogram the same session. No new session has been held since amid the exchange's three-day closure, and the building-materials market awaits today's reopening.

11. Regional and Global Outlook

Brent crude, on track Friday for a nearly 4% weekly gain amid the US threat to maintain an "indefinite" naval blockade of Iran and the sharp drop in Hormuz traffic (Oilprice.com, citing Reuters and ING), reached $88.52 today. The International Energy Agency this week forecast a 1.8 million barrel-a-day supply deficit for the current quarter, while OPEC cut its 2026 demand-growth outlook to 580,000 barrels a day from 780,000. Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, said Friday it exported about 49 million barrels of crude in July and announced a Basra-to-Fishkhabur pipeline to cut its reliance on Hormuz (Shafaq News). Refiners in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and India bought millions of barrels of US crude this week at premiums of $8 to $14 over West Asian benchmarks (Oilprice.com, citing Reuters). Saudi Arabia and 12 other nations formally activated their Red Sea maritime coalition Thursday to protect shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Houthi attacks (Al Jazeera).

12. Bottom Line

Today belonged to Hormuz, not the Tehran bourse. The complete halt in tanker traffic and Trump's threat to annex the strait pushed Brent to $88 and pulled gold and coin out of their morning slide into a midday advance, while TEDPIX, after three closed sessions, held almost exactly where it left off Tuesday, its seven-day run stalled without a real decline. The takeaway: when Hormuz drives the headlines, the first reaction shows up in gold and oil, not necessarily on the exchange board.

13. What to Watch Today

The rest of today's Tehran Stock Exchange session through 12:30 pm, and whether gold and coin's midday advance holds into the close or reverts to this morning's decline. Globally, whether tanker traffic through Hormuz resumes in the coming days or Friday's zero-transit reading repeats, and Iran's response to Trump's territorial claim. Upcoming market events are tracked on Sahmino's market calendar.