The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow exit from the Persian Gulf that about a fifth of the world's oil passes through. Since the fighting began, ships going through it have been attacked by both sides, and far fewer are trying: the tape's count of ships calling through the strait is down to about four a day from nearly eleven in June, and tankers to about one a day from nearly five. Fewer tankers willing to sail means the ones that do can charge much more, which is why the shipping companies that own tankers have more than doubled in value this year. Jessica explains it from a yoga mat, in tree pose, because balance is the whole game.

The United States and Iran have been fighting since the start of September, mostly around the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane that carries a fifth of the world's oil. This week the Pentagon put a price on it: $33.4 billion spent so far, with some weapons stocks running low. Oil has been above $100 a barrel since Iran attacked ten ships on 10 September, which is why petrol and heating cost more. Jessica tells it from behind a bar while making a whisky on the rocks the proper way: one large clear cube, a two-ounce pour, thirty seconds, no stirring. The whisky is hers; the numbers are the tape's.

The White House decides which journalists are allowed into its briefings and grounds. On Thursday the President said three news organisations, CNN, MS NOW (the network formerly called MSNBC) and Politico, would no longer be allowed in, and on Friday their reporters were turned away. The three outlets objected publicly. The criticism was not limited to those three: The Hill reported that contributors on Fox News also spoke against the ban. This page records what happened and how it was received, and takes no side.

Natural gas heats homes, runs factories and makes electricity. America produces its own, so a unit of gas costs about three dollars here. Europe has to import most of its gas by pipeline or by ship, and this year the price there has nearly tripled to about nine times the American price. Oil is expensive everywhere because of the fighting around the Strait of Hormuz, but oil is the same price for everyone; gas is where Europe pays more. The gas Europe is buying increasingly comes from American export terminals, which is why the American exporters are among the year's best-performing shares while Germany's market is flat.

The Federal Reserve sets the interest rate that every other rate in America follows. Yesterday it raised that rate for the first time in three years, by a quarter of a percentage point, because prices are still rising at 3.4% a year and oil costs more than $100 a barrel. Higher rates make borrowing dearer: the 10-year government bond now pays 5%, and a 30-year mortgage costs about 6.8%. That is why a rate rise matters to you even if you never buy a share.

Nike, the biggest sportswear brand in the world, is worth a fifth of what it was at its 2021 peak, and this week it lost its place in the S&P 100, the index of America's hundred biggest companies. Lululemon, the yoga-wear brand, has halved this year. The fashion name that is going up is e.l.f. Beauty, which sells make-up at drugstore prices: up 23% this year. Shoppers are trading down.

On Monday three of the best-known people in AI, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk, said the industry should slow down building its most powerful models. The companies that make the chips and hardware for AI fell hardest, because slower AI means fewer chips sold. Netflix rose, because it spends its money on shows, not on AI hardware.

Even as the models were told to slow down, investors kept pouring money in. Anthropic is reported to be preparing a stock-market listing valuing it at $2 trillion. OpenAI's boss says his company will not list this year. Nvidia gave a record $26 billion back to its shareholders, and CoreWeave, which rents out AI computers, says it cannot keep up with demand.

Target, the retailer, has been a better stock than Nvidia this year, up nearly 60% against Nvidia's 17%. A new chief executive is retraining staff, redesigning stores and using AI behind the scenes. The lesson people are drawing: the winners of the AI year are not only the companies that make AI.

SpaceX floated on the stock market in June. After a volatile summer the shares are back at about $150, the price they opened at on the first day. Analysts' guesses for where it goes next range from $75 to $800, which is a polite way of saying nobody knows.

Micron makes memory chips, the part of a computer that holds what the processor is working on. AI systems need enormous amounts of it, so Micron's shares have almost tripled this year, from about $315 to about $924. They were higher still in June. Everyone watches Nvidia; the memory makers have quietly done as well or better.