Oil Surged 33% in a Week: 3 Commodity ETFs to Buy as the Hormuz Crisis Deepens

Quick Read

• United States Oil Fund (USO) gained 27% between February 27 and March 9 with a 0.7% expense ratio and $1.1B in net assets, offering the cleanest WTI exposure; United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO) tracks the global benchmark and gained 23% over the same window with a 1.1% expense ratio and $208M in net assets; Invesco DB Oil Fund (DBO) uses an optimized roll strategy to minimize contango drag and is up 64% year-to-date with a 0.75% expense ratio and $230M in net assets.

• Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and escalating drone strikes across the Middle East have removed 8 million barrels per day of crude from global supply, pushing WTI crude up 33% in a single week and triggering record gains across all three oil ETFs.

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Starting on March 4, 2026, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and began attacking ships attempting to transit oil and other commodities. The consequences for global oil supply have been immediate and severe. Around 8 million barrels per day of crude production has already been shut in, and ING analysts warn that a prolonged disruption could push prices to record highs, surpassing the 2008 peak.

WTI crude has responded accordingly, climbing from $71.13 on March 2 to $94.65 by March 9, a gain of 33% in a single week. Meanwhile, drone strikes have escalated across the region, with attacks confirmed on a refinery in the UAE, an oil export terminal in the UAE, and an oil field in Iraq, in addition to the March 16 strike on ADNOC’s Shah gas field.

Commodity ETFs offer meaningfully different structural approaches to oil price exposure, each with its own mechanics and tradeoffs worth understanding. Here are three investors should certainly consider right now.

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United States Oil Fund (USO): The Direct WTI Bet

United States Oil Fund (NYSEARCA:USO) is the most widely traded oil commodity ETF in the U.S. market, holding near-month WTI crude oil futures contracts. When WTI moves, USO moves with it. That directness is exactly what makes it relevant right now: the Hormuz conflict is a WTI-proximate event, and this fund offers the cleanest single-instrument exposure to that price.

The results since the conflict escalated speak to that relationship. USO gained 27% between February 27 and March 9 as crude surged, and has extended those gains to 66% year-to-date as the disruption has persisted. That performance reflects how directly the fund tracks WTI price moves. In other words, there is little structural friction between the commodity and the fund.

On the operational side, USO carries an expense ratio of 0.7% and has approximately $1.1 billion in net assets, making it one of the most liquid vehicles in the commodity ETF space.

The tradeoff is a structural one inherent to how futures-based oil funds work. USO rolls its near-month contracts forward every month, which means in a market where future-dated oil is priced higher than spot (a condition called contango), the fund loses a small amount of value on each roll regardless of where oil prices go. In a fast-moving crisis like this one, that drag is minimal compared to the directional gain, but it matters for investors holding over longer periods.

United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO): The Global Benchmark Play

United States Brent Oil Fund (NYSEARCA:BNO) tracks Brent crude futures rather than WTI. That distinction matters here because Brent is the global benchmark, and the Hormuz conflict is fundamentally a global supply shock. Much of the oil transiting the strait is priced off Brent, and the markets most exposed to the disruption, including Europe and Asia, use Brent as their reference price. If the conflict deepens or spreads, Brent is the benchmark most likely to reflect the full magnitude of the supply squeeze.

BNO has tracked the surge closely, gaining 23% between February 27 and March 9. That’s slightly less than USO over that short window, but its year-to-date gain of 68% reflects Brent’s stronger sensitivity to prolonged Middle East supply shocks. Indeed, this outperformance over time is consistent with Brent’s role as the global benchmark for oil priced out of the Gulf.

The fund carries an expense ratio of 1.1% on approximately $208 million in net assets, making it the most expensive of the three options reviewed here. Brent and WTI typically trade within a few dollars of each other, but during acute Middle East supply disruptions the spread can widen in Brent’s favor. The lower liquidity relative to USO is a real consideration for anyone trading in size.

Invesco DB Oil Fund (DBO): The Smarter Roll

Invesco DB Oil Fund (NYSEARCA:DBO) tracks WTI crude like USO, but it uses a meaningfully different strategy for managing its futures exposure. Rather than rolling mechanically into the nearest-month contract each month, DBO follows the DBIQ Optimum Yield Crude Oil Index, which selects among contracts with maturities ranging out to 13 months based on which offers the most favorable roll yield. The goal is to minimize the drag from contango and capture more of the underlying commodity’s price move over time.

In a sustained bull market for oil, that structural advantage compounds. DBO is up 64% year-to-date and has gained 52% over the past year. The fund holds roughly $230 million in net assets and charges an expense ratio of 0.75%. A portion of the portfolio sits in Treasury instruments and short-term government money market funds as collateral against the futures positions, which generates a small yield while the fund waits for oil to move.

The tradeoff is complexity. DBO’s optimized roll strategy means its short-term price behavior can diverge from WTI spot more than USO’s does, particularly during fast-moving markets when the fund is holding contracts further out on the curve. USO holds near-month contracts and will typically track daily WTI price moves more closely, while DBO’s structure is oriented toward minimizing roll costs over weeks or months in a prolonged disruption.

Comparing the Three

USO holds near-month WTI futures contracts and has the highest trading volume of the three. BNO tracks the global Brent benchmark, which governs most international oil trade and historically reflects Middle East supply disruptions more directly than WTI. DBO uses an optimized roll strategy designed to reduce contango drag over extended holding periods.

All three are pure commodity instruments with no dividend income, so performance is entirely dependent on where oil prices move from here.

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