Trump Says Iran Shot Down U.S. Helicopter and America 'Must' Respond

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on social media Tuesday that Iran shot down an American helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz despite a fragile ceasefire, and that Washington "must" respond.

"I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote.

"There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured," the president wrote. "Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack."

Some 20% of global oil output normally passes through the Hormuz Strait via tankers, but shipments have plunged – and global energy prices have risen – ever since the U.S.-Israel-Iran War began on Feb. 28.

In fact, Trump's statement sent oil prices higher Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

$Crude Oil Futures (SEP6) (CLmain.US)$ had been down as much as 5.9% to $85.95 a barrel earlier in the session after U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright claimed that ship traffic through the Hormuz Strait is "rising very meaningfully."

But Trump's social-media comments boosted that to $86.39 a barrel as of about 1:30 p.m. New York time. That's still down 3.9% from Monday's levels, but $0.46 higher than oil futures had been at Tuesday's session low.

That said, stocks showed little immediate reaction to Trump's remarks.

The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$, $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ and $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ had already been trading lower on a sell-off for Big Techs, with Trump's comments having little additional impact.

Only the Dow-30 lost ground following Trump's social-media posting. The index had been trading at 50,322 just prior to Trump's comments at 12:38 p.m. New York time, but fell to 50,571.70 as of 1:30 p.m.

However, the IXIC and SPX actually improved following Trump's statement.

The Nasdaq Comp was trading at 25,388.89 as of 1:30 p.m. New York time, while the S&P 500 was at 7,319.61.

While both indexes were down for the day, they were actually trading a little higher than they had been just prior to Trump's social-media remarks.

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