Houthis enforce Red Sea blockade, putting Saudi oil at risk for the first time
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
While we slept
Yemen’s Houthis have warned shipping companies of possible attacks if they use Saudi Arabian ports, moving to enforce a blockade announced yesterday.
The Houthi warning for the Red Sea, combined with Iran’s threat to shipping on the other side of the Arabian peninsular in the Gulf, means Saudi oil exports, so far largely unscathed by ongoing events in the Strait of Hormuz, could be impacted, and further deepen the crisis in the region.
The Guardian reported two oil tankers that had loaded Saudi crude this week for China and India made U-turns on Tuesday away from Houthi-controlled coast at the mouth of the Red Sea and headed towards the Suez canal. The Houthis claimed six ships had changed course.
And Moonshot AI, which blew the high-tech sector away by releasing Kimi K3 in the weekend, is in talks to raise capital at a valuation of as much as US$50 billion ahead of a planned Hong Kong initial public offering, according to Bloomberg. The Beijing-based startup will first close a current funding round that values it at $31.5 billion, people familiar with the matter told the news service.
Market summary
In mid-afternoon Tuesday trading in New York, a slew of positive corporate earnings have boosted markets. The Dow Jones is up, the S&P 500 has gained and the Nasdaq has risen
Chipmakers were riding high while notable earnings reports include expectation-beating results from 3M and General Motors; of the roughly 66 S&P 500 names that have reported, nearly 88% have topped bottom-line estimates, per FactSet as reported by CNBC.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.56% on the buoyancy, while Asian markets also finished Tuesday in the green - Japan’s Nikkei 225 added over 3%, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 3.56%, mainland China’s CSI 300 was up over 3% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 0.4%.
Back here, New Zealand’s S&P/NZX50 slipped 0.29%, after Statistics NZ’s second quarter inflation figure was revealed to have accelerated to 4.1%, mainly driven by the cost of utilities and fuel. The downwards momentum hit the market’s big stocks - Fisher & Paykel was down 1.49%, while Ebos Group dropped 1.69%.
Other news included the release of a report by the New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association, showing labour shortages and inconsistent government policy were the building sector’s biggest concerns - and were now posing a greater threat than the economic downturn. Meanwhile, Booster's Private Land and Property Fund (PLP) wrote down the value of its three vineyard properties and winery in Hawke's Bay, down by $3.87 million because of ongoing challenges in the viticultural industry.
Other decliners included ArborGen, down 8.45%; Synlait Milk fell 5%, Chatham Rock Phosphate lost 4%, Pacific Edge slipped back 3.77% and Serko fell 3.73%.
Gains were small, but gainers included TruScreen, up 6.67%; Savor was up 3.33%, Eroad rose 3.03%, Private Land and Property Fund Units rose 2.99% and Argosy advanced 2.83%.
In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 ticked up just 0.023% on Tuesday, led up by data centre play NextDC Ltd, which gained 7.74% after the business won new contracts; gold developer Minerals 260 Ltd advanced 7.69% on boarder sentiment.
What’s up today
The Animal and Plant Health New Zealand Annual Conference happens in Wellington. Stats NZ will release greenhouse gas emissions - industry and household - for the March quarter
In The Post today, Tom Pullar-Strecker reports that Nicola Willis is looking “in detail” at supermarket split, with advice due out before the election. Dita De Boni reports on another push for mandatory pay gap reporting, Aimee Shaw delves into the story of three students and their amazing win with an AI application for perfume. Kate O’Leary, the chief executive of consumer goods social enterprise Will & Able, tells us about her Boss Life; Stripe NZ managing director Ben Hanna makes a call for a better, faster payment ecosystem and employment expert David Burton explores “partial strikes”.