Oil Prices Slide 2% as Markets Brace for Bessent’s ‘Economic D-Day’

Oil prices fell by more than 2% in early Asian trade on Monday as traders took profits and markets awaited details of a new U.S. sanctions package against Iran. At the time of writing, WTI futures were trading at $85.18 per barrel, down 2.16%, while Brent futures were trading at $92.32 per barrel, down 2.19%. Both benchmarks gained more than 5% last week as the U.S. and Iran continued to trade threats, Iranian crude exports dropped, and tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slowed to a trickle. Today's pullback appears to be driven primarily by profit-taking from that rally rather than by any significant improvement in the underlying geopolitical picture. One relative upside for traders to take into account is that there have been no confirmed attacks in the Strait of Hormuz over the past 48 hours.