Riyadh airport reopens as Saudi Arabia intercepts a dozen Houthi missiles, with Brent at $116.72

Saudi Arabia says it intercepted a wave of Houthi drones and missiles on Sunday, and Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport said it was resuming operations the same day, CNBC reported. The two facts pull in opposite directions: the airport is reopening while the airport is also, by the Houthis' own account, a target.

What each side says

The Saudi Press Agency quoted coalition spokesperson Turki Al-Maliki as saying two drones and a ballistic missile headed for Riyadh were "intercepted and destroyed," along with 10 ballistic missiles fired toward the south of the kingdom and a cruise missile aimed at Khamis Mushait, per CNBC. The Houthis said in a Telegram post that they carried out seven operations with ballistic missiles and drones, naming King Khalid airport, Aramco facilities at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, and other airports and energy sites. We have not independently confirmed either account, and CNBC says Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. No damage or casualties from Sunday's attacks were reported in the account we read.

The airport told travelers that Terminal 1 will handle domestic flights and Terminal 2 overseas flights. It had been shut since Oct. 10, after a strike CNBC now says killed at least 13 people and injured about 300, the deadliest attack on Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. Our earlier report cited 12 dead; the figure has since risen. Headlines from Reuters and Investing.com, which we could read only as headlines, say Gulf shares closed mostly lower and that Saudi Arabia's Tadawul index fell 2.65% at the close on Sunday.

What it means for oil, flights and the pump

Oil. Brent futures rose 3.1% on Friday to settle at $116.72 a barrel, the highest settlement since April 29, and gained 6.2% on the week, a third straight weekly rise, CNBC reports. WTI settled at $103.27, up 3.8% on the day and 2.3% on the week; Yahoo Finance shows the same close. CNBC does not name the contract month, so compare moves rather than levels across sources. Markets are closed until Monday, so none of Sunday's events is priced yet. Energy Aspects' Amrita Sen told CNBC clients are asking "when," not "if," on new U.S. action against Iran, and that her view is it is more likely after the Nov. 3 midterms.

Airlines and airspace. The FAA told U.S. carriers on Oct. 12 to exercise caution around Saudi Arabia, and Delta had already pushed its planned Atlanta-Riyadh start to March. A reopened terminal does not mean carriers return quickly; we have not seen any airline announce a resumption. Shipping and insurance: Yanbu is a Red Sea loading point, so any confirmed damage there would matter, but none is confirmed. Defense stocks and consumers: there are no verified Friday closes for defense names in our sources, and the link to pump prices runs through crude; the oil chart below shows how far WTI sits from its April peak.

Watch Monday: the first oil prints after the weekend, whether Aramco comments on Yanbu, and whether any airline schedules Riyadh flights. More context in this morning's War Room brief, the Iran strike-plan story and our crude oil chart.

Sources: CNBC, CNBC, Reuters and Investing.com headlines, Yahoo Finance. Claims are attributed to the parties that made them. This is market information, not investment advice.