Oil Dips From 4-Yr High as Markets Awaits Next Move on Iran


   
Barani Krishnan
DTN Refined Fuels Market Reporter

   SECAUCUS, NJ (DTN) -- Oil prices fell from four-year highs Thursday (4/30) 
as market participants awaited further signals from the Middle East conflict, 
after continuous exchange of rhetoric between the United States and Iran led 
crude to rally over three prior sessions.

   NYMEX WTI crude for June delivery settled down $1.81, or 1.7%, at $105.07 
bbl after an intraday high at $110.93. For all of April, the U.S. crude 
benchmark rose 2%, adding to a first quarter advance of 77%.

   By 2:30 p.m. ET, ICE Brent crude for June was down $3.94, or 3.3%, to 
$114.09 bbl. It hit $126.41 earlier, its highest since the $134.91 peak that 
came after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The global crude benchmark was up 
about 7% for April after a first-quarter gain of 95%.

   Downstream, NYMEX ULSD futures for May delivery $0.0603 to $4.1384 gallon.

   Gasoline bucked the overall lower trend in energy, with NYMEX RBOB futures 
for May rising $0.0304 to $3.7715 gallon.

   The U.S. Dollar Index retreated 0.877 points to 97.95 against a basket of 
foreign currencies.

   Oil prices spiked earlier on Thursday on news that U.S. President Donald 
Trump was reviewing fresh military options against Iran. But a lull after that 
in follow-through headlines on the war pushed crude to product futures lower.

   The Middle East conflict has now stretched beyond two months after the first 
U.S.-Israeli airstrikes this year against Iran on February 27. Tehran has also 
shuttered for that duration the Strait of Hormuz, which used to be a transit 
point for some 140 ships daily carrying about 20 million bpd in all of 
petroleum liquids that make up a fifth of global supply. A U.S. blockade of 
Iranian ports over the past two weeks has added to the market seizure.

   "Market action is going to be up and down hereon, on shifting concerns about 
the duration of the Hormuz shutdown," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Chicago's 
Price Futures Group.

   On the U.S. economic front, the latest inflation reading via the Personal 
Consumption Expenditures Index showed a 3.5% year-on-year growth in March that 
came in well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. Inflation was on the 
decline last year but has ramped up after a rally in energy prices that began 
in January, even before the Iran war.

   First quarter gross domestic product data meanwhile showed a 2.0% annualized 
rate -- above the 0.5% growth in the final quarter of last year but below the 
forecast 2.3%.




(c) Copyright 2026 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.