Oil drops more than 3% after State Secretary Pompeo says Iran is ready to negotiate about its missile program

Oil prices turned lower on Tuesday, falling by about $2 a barrel as U.S. President Donald Trump said progress has been made with Iran, signaling tensions could ease in the Mideast.

Brent crude futures were down $2.56 or 3.7% at $63.86 a barrel, after hitting a session high of $67.09.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell by $2.46 or 4.2% to $57.09 a barrel. The U.S. benchmark hit a session high of $60.06 earlier in the day.

“What were tailwinds have become headwinds,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. He said the same tensions between the United States and Iran that had driven prices higher earlier in the session were putting a damper on the market after Trump’s comments.

Trump said on Tuesday a lot of progress had been made with Iran and that he was not looking for regime change in the country.

Trump, who made the remarks at a Cabinet meeting in the White House, did not give details about the progress, but U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the meeting Iran had said it was prepared to negotiate about its missile program.

Tension between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program have previously lent support to oil futures, given the potential for a price spike should the situation deteriorate.

Uncertainty about China’s economic prospects also pressured prices lower after data on Monday showed that growth in the country slowed to 6.2% from a year earlier, the weakest pace in at least 27 years.

Additionally, U.S. oil companies on Monday began restoring some of the nearly 74% of production that was shut at platforms in the Gulf of Mexico because of Hurricane Barry.

Workers were returning to the more than 280 production platforms that had been evacuated. It can take several days for full production to resume.

The storm will probably result in a noticeable decline in U.S. crude oil stocks this week, analysts at Commerzbank said.

Inventory data will be published by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday evening, and by the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday.

However, some say the bullish inventory data is structural, and not attributable only to the storm.

“Beyond the storm we feel we’re in a tightening inventory mode through August,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst with Price Futures Group in Chicago.

CNBC

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.