Oil Futures Rise As Iran Tensions And Strikes Fuel Market Fears
2026-04-23 Shafaq News Crude oil futures spiked $5 a barrel on Thursday after reports that air defenses were engaging targetsover Tehran and of a power struggle between Iran’s hardliners and moderates.
After spiking, the benchmarks pared gains. Brent crude futures settled at $105.07 a barrel, gaining $3.16 or 3.1%. West Texas Intermediate futures finished at $95.85 a barrel, up $2.89, or 3.11%.
IRAN NEGOTIATOR QUITS
Israeli radio reported the resignation of Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, from the team speaking to the U.S. through Pakistani intermediaries about ending the war.
Qalibaf’s resignation was seen as a victory for hard line elements within the Iranian government.
Iranian news services said air defenses in Tehran were engaging targets over the city. That followed reports of drone attacks on Iranian Kurdish opponents of the Tehran government at a base in Iraq.
Iran flaunted its tightened grip over the Strait of Hormuz with video of its commandos storming a huge cargo ship, after the collapse of peace talks that Washington had hoped would open the important shipping corridor.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post that he had ordered the U.S. Navy “to shoot and kill any boat” mining the strait.
John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital, said the market was being buffeted by alternating news reports of Trump extending the ceasefire this week and threatening to sink Iranian mine-laying ships.
“Some people call it headline bingo, I call it headline roulette,” Kilduff said. “I fear we’re going to wake up one day and realize we’re in a much worse (supply) position and prices are going to reset to a much higher level.”
STRAIT OF HORMUZ TRANSIT STILL RESTRICTED
While Trump extended a ceasefire between the countries after a request by Pakistani mediators, Iran and the U.S. are still restricting transit of ships through the strait, which carried about 20% of daily global oil supplies until the start of the war on February 28.
Trump, without providing evidence, said on Thursday the U.S. had “total control” over the strait, and that it was “sealed up tight” until Iran made a deal.
Iran seized two ships in the waterway on Wednesday. Trump has maintained a U.S. Navy blockade of Iran’s trade by sea.
However, about 10.7 million barrels of Iranian crudeexports crossed through the strait and left the area blockaded by the U.S. Navy between April 13 and 21, data analytics company Vortexa said.
The U.S. military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters and is redirecting them away from positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, shipping and security sources said on Wednesday.
Trump has not set an end date for the extended ceasefire, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group, said prices were constrained by confidence in the crude market.
“The market continues to believe we’re going to find a way through this,” Flynn said.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Thursday said a survey of 120 oil and natural gas company executives this month found 39% expect traffic through the strait to return to normal by August and 26% expect normal traffic through the waterway by November.
Twenty percent of the executives surveyed between April 15 and 20 believe traffic will be normal by May, according to the Dallas Fed. (Reuters) https://www.shafaq.com/en/Economy/Oil-futures-rise-as-Iran-tensions-and-strikes-fuel-market-fears
Oil Spikes 17% In A Week As Iran Tensions Shake Global Supply
2026-04-24 Shafaq News Oil prices rose on Friday due to fears of a renewed military escalation in the Middle East after Iran released footage of commandos boarding a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz and on reports Tehran’s air defenses had engaged “hostile targets.”
Brent crude futures rose 99 cents, or 0.94%, to $106.06 a barrel at 0410 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate futures were up 71 cents, or 0.73%, at $96.56.
Brent rose 17.13% throughout the course of the week while WTI rose 15.13%, the second-largest weekly gain since the war began.
The resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz after the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran cut around 20% of the world’s supply of oil and liquefied natural gas.
Both benchmark contracts settled up more than 3% on Thursday and jumped $5 a barrel after reports that air defenses were engaging targets over Tehran and of a power struggle between Iran’s hardliners and moderates.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that Iran may have loaded up its weaponry “a little bit” during the two-week ceasefire, but added that the U.S. military could eliminate it in just a single day.
The ceasefire phase is increasingly looking like a preparatory phase for war, Haitong Futures said in a report. If U.S.-Iran talks fail to make key progress by the end of April and fighting resumes, oil prices could climb to new highs for the year, it added.
Iran on Thursday posted video of commandos in a speed boat storming a huge cargo ship after the collapse of peace talks, underlining its grip over the Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of global oil and gas usually flows.
As investors and governments around the world look for an enduring peace, Trump said he would not set a “timetable” for ending the conflict with Iran and that he wanted to make “a great deal.”
“Don’t rush me,” he said when asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal with Iran.
Prolonged disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz could push global crude and refined-product inventories below five-year seasonal lows by late May or early June, adding a supply-risk premium back into oil prices, said Mingyu Gao, chief researcher for energy and chemicals at China Futures.
Trump also announced in a social media post on Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks after a high-level meeting between representatives of both countries in the White House Oval Office.
(Reuters) https://www.shafaq.com/en/Economy/Oil-spikes-17-in-a-week-as-Iran-tensions-shake-global-supply
Gold Falls 3.5% Weekly On Higher-For-Longer Rate Fears
2026-04-24Shafaq News Gold prices fell on Friday and were on track for a weekly drop, as elevated oil prices fuelled fears of inflation and higher-for-longer interest rates amid stalled U.S.-Iran peace talks.
Spot gold was down 0.7% at $4,661.33 per ounce, as of 0426 GMT. The metal is down 3.5% so far this week after a four-week winning run.
U.S. gold futures for June delivery fell 1% to $4,676.50.
Brent crude prices have risen over 17% so far this week to hover above $105 a barrel, as the key Strait of Hormuz remained largely closed despite an extension of the Iran ceasefire.
“Gold is still being trapped in this sideways range, between the 50-day moving average at around $4,900 and at the bottom, the 20-day moving average at $4,645 level,” Wong said, adding that “everything now boils down to what’s going on in the Middle East.”
Iran flaunted its tightened grip over the strait on Thursday with a video of commandos in a speedboat storming a huge cargo ship, after the collapse of peace talks that Washington had hoped would open one of the world’s most important shipping corridors.
Trump told reporters that he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal but that its leadership was in turmoil. He said he was in no hurry for a deal, but if Iran did not want one, “I’ll finish it up militarily.”
The U.S. dollar is up 0.8% so far this week, making greenback-priced bullion more expensive for other currency holders.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields have gained over 2% this week, increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
Spot silver fell 1% to $74.69 per ounce, platinum lost 1.1% to $1,984.60, while palladium was down 0.3% at $1,464.02.
(Reuters) https://www.shafaq.com/en/Economy/Gold-falls-3-5-weekly-on-higher-for-longer-rate-fears
Dollar Rises 0.6% As Iran Tensions Shake Markets
2026-04-24 Shafaq News The dollar was on track for its first weekly gain in three weeks on Friday, as stalled peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran dampened hopes for an immediate easing of Middle East tensions.
While Lebanon and Israel extended their ceasefire for three weeks ahead of its expiration on Sunday, Iran showed off its control over the Strait of Hormuz by releasing footage of its commandos storming a huge cargo ship, leaving the timing of the reopening of the world’s most important shipping corridor uncertain and keeping oil prices elevated.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, ticked 0.01% higher to 98.84 and remained on track for a weekly gain of 0.62%. The euro dipped 0.01% to $1.1682, while sterling edged down 0.02% to $1.3464.
“Oil and the dollar are still moving pretty closely together, and with crude creeping back up … I’d say the dollar is still staying fairly firm,” said Sho Suzuki, a market analyst at Matsui Securities.
Brent crude futures rose 45 cents, or 0.43%, to $105.52 a barrel at 0525 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate futures were up 14 cents, or 0.15%, at $95.99.
The dollar has drawn safe-haven demand amid the uncertainty. It gained ground in March as concerns over the conflict deepened, but gave back some of those gains this month as optimism over a potential resolution grew.
Meanwhile, the yen was on track for a fifth straight day of losses against the dollar, weakening 0.03% to 159.77 per dollar.
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama reiterated her verbal warning on intervention on Friday that authorities can take “decisive” action against speculative moves in the foreign exchange market, a day after saying Japan has a “free hand” to intervene and that past interventions had been effective.
With Japanese authorities continuing to push back against yen weakness, “it is difficult to expect a scenario in which the yen weakens sharply beyond 160 per dollar in the near term,” said Akihiko Yokoo, senior analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, in a note.
Japan’s core consumer inflation slowed below the central bank’s 2% target for a second straight month in March. Analysts, though, expect inflation to accelerate back above the Bank of Japan’s target in coming months, as companies begin to pass on higher fuel costs from the Middle East conflict.
The BOJ is set to hold its two-day policy meeting ending on Tuesday. Reuters reported the bank is likely to hold off raising interest rates next week as fading prospects of a near-term end to the Middle East war keep the country’s economic and price outlook highly uncertain. The BOJ is still expected to signal its readiness to hike to counter mounting price pressures.
Matsui Securities’ Suzuki said an intervention is more likely only if the dollar-yen pair breaks above its July 2024 high of 161.95.
“So even if yen weakness accelerates after next week’s BOJ meeting, they’d probably start with jawboning and if that doesn’t work, then move to actual intervention,” he said.
In a similar vein, the European Central Bank will hold its deposit rate on April 30 but hike it in June, according to just over half of economists polled by Reuters, in a bid to protect a war-induced energy shock from knocking the euro zone economy off balance.
The Australian dollar weakened 0.03% versus the greenback to $0.7126. New Zealand’s kiwi weakened 0.03% versus the greenback to $0.585. The dollar also held firm against emerging Asian currencies, with the Philippine peso falling 0.3% to 60.699 per dollar after touching 60.755, the lowest since late March. The Malaysian ringgit weakened 0.1% to 3.9660 and the Indian rupee slipped 0.2% to 94.2950.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.23% to $77,740.57. Ethereum declined 0.73% to $2,309.52. (Reuters)
