Oil settles up 2pc

Brent crude settled 2.1 percent higher on Thursday at USD89.70 a barrel, ending a three-session losing run, after The Wall Street Journal indicated Washington had little appetite for reviving a memorandum of understanding with Iran agreed in June. US West Texas Intermediate futures also rose, finishing USD1.30 higher at USD83.53. Both benchmarks recovered as traders trimmed their hopes that diplomacy might lift Middle Eastern oil shipments.

The rebound came as the White House confirmed it was not holding talks with Iran, despite outside efforts to reconnect the two sides. Trump said he had no wish to meet Tehran and that Washington was concentrating on squeezing the Iranian economy, adding that nations trading with Tehran would be penalised. The sanctions announced on Monday, which Washington called the strictest in history, were described by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as a way to reduce the need for large military operations.

Shipping data also showed restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where 10 commodity vessels passed on Wednesday, according to Kpler. That marked an improvement on recent lows, yet it stayed under the 10-day mean of 15. Giovanni Staunovo of UBS suggested that stalled negotiations, along with ongoing supply curbs, might have altered how the market is judging the outlook.