Brent tops $100, Asian stocks slide as Iran war jolts markets

Brent crude climbed above $100 a barrel Thursday, its highest level since May, as renewed fighting tied to the Iran war and Houthi attacks on Saudi oil tankers rattled global markets. The jump in energy prices helped drive a broad equity selloff from Wall Street into Asia on Friday, with Seoul down more than 3% and major chip and tech names in Japan and South Korea posting steep losses. In the U.S., an index of the Magnificent Seven shed almost $800 billion in market value, with Alphabet falling nearly 7% and Tesla dropping more than 14%. Analysts and consumer trackers said the oil spike is likely to feed through to gasoline, shipping, school supplies and fresh food, with average U.S. regular gas at $4.09 a gallon Thursday.