Oil prices rose as Washington and Tehran seemed no closer to reaching a durable truce. US President Donald Trump rejected a peace proposal from Iran on Friday; he told Axios he believed talks would resume this week, though The Wall Street Journal reported that he told aides he expects to bomb Iran again after November’s midterms.
All the while, the Trump administration has reportedly been issuing ultimatums to Tehran’s trading partners, warning that continued commerce risked US sanctions. Though oil supplies from the Gulf appear to be recovering — September exports from the Middle East were the highest since the war began — overall sales remain well short of pre-conflict levels. Benchmark crude rose more than 2%.