Brent Crude traded at $78.17 to $78.21 on Thursday 9 July, barely below the $78.67 it reached on 8 July after the strike-and-retaliation spike. Brent is the benchmark that prices roughly two-thirds of the world's traded oil, so where it settles feeds straight into fuel costs and government revenues. The premium held through a second round of exchange rather than fading on relief. Earlier war spikes had drained away within a session or two; this one has not.
The next scheduled pressure point falls on 17 July, when the wind-down deadline on the revoked oil-sanctions waiver strips Iranian crude sales of US authorisation1. Traders are pricing an open-ended fight rather than a contained flare-up, holding the six per cent jump in place ahead of a deadline that could tighten Iranian supply further.
