Oil Drops as US-Iran Concerns Ease and Lack of Demand Resurfaces

June 24, 2019 Share Print 0

Oil prices fell about 1% on Monday as crude demand concerns resurfaced and the possibility of an imminent conflict between the United States and Iran began to fade.

Benchmark Brent crude was down 89 cents, or 1.4%, to $64.31 a barrel at 11:29 a.m. EDT (1529 GMT), while U.S. crude shed 44 cents, or 0.8%, to $56.99 a barrel.

Last week, Brent climbed 5% and U.S. crude surged 10% after Iran shot down a U.S. drone on Thursday in the Gulf. This added to tensions stoked by attacks on oil tankers in the area in May and June that Washington has blamed on Iran.

Iran denies any role in the tanker attacks.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he called off a retaliatory attack on Iran at the last minute after the drone was downed, but Washington has said it will still step up sanctions on Tehran.

vai Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.