Oil Prices Plunge 11% on U.S.-Iran Talks Hopes, Brent Slides Below $100
Oil prices dropped about 11% on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would postpone any military strikes against Iranian power plants for five days and cited constructive talks aimed at resolving hostilities in the Middle East—just hours before a deadline that had threatened to escalate the four-week-old war.
Brent futures fell $12.25, or 10.9%, to settle at $99.94 a barrel, while WTI lost $10.10, or 10.3%, to settle at $88.13.
The extreme price swings seen in recent weeks—Brent had closed at its highest level since July 2022 on Friday—pushed both benchmarks’ 30-day futures volatility (historic/realized) to the highest level since April 2022.
U.S. gasoline and diesel futures also fell by around 10% on Monday after settling at their highest levels since 2022 on Friday, reflecting a sharp unwind of war-driven risk premiums across refined products.
Trump said there were talks between the United States and Iran over the past day and that the two sides had “major points of agreement,” adding that a deal could be reached soon to end the conflict.
Crude futures had plunged nearly 15% earlier in the session before trimming losses after Iran launched fresh attacks on Israel and other sites in the Middle East and denied that Tehran had engaged in negotiations with the U.S.—a reminder that the market remains extremely headline-driven.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had warned they would attack Israel’s power plants and infrastructure supplying U.S. bases across the Gulf region if the United States followed through with Trump’s earlier threat to “obliterate” Iran’s power network.
Source : Newsmaker.id
