Oil plunges 10% as Trump says Iran will be hit 'twenty times harder' if it stops oil flows via Hormuz

Oil prices plunged 10% Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Tehran would be hit "twenty times harder" if it attempted to halt oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, while also signaling that the conflict with Iran could end soon.

International Brent crude was down nearly 11% at $88.36 per barrel at 9.25 p.m. ET Monday. U.S. crude oil fell over more than 10% to $85.17 per barrel. The declines come after oil surged past $100 on Monday.

"If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far," U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social Monday stateside.

Oil prices year-to-date

Earlier in the day, Trump told CBS News over phone that ships were continuing to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, adding that he was "thinking about taking it over." He also signaled that the war could be over soon.

"I think there's a lot of optimism in the market," said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group.

"We saw that today with the collapse in oil prices on what we used to call verbal intervention from the President."

McNally said the market is still struggling to process the scale of the disruption, noting that for decades traders assumed no country would be allowed to shut the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most critical oil chokepoint.

The fact that it has happened at all is "completely calamitous and unexpected," McNally said, pointing that that even during the tensions of the 1980s the waterway was never fully closed. 

For now, markets appear to be betting the situation cannot last long and that navigation through the Strait will ultimately be restored, he added.