{"id":36874,"date":"2026-06-12T08:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=36874"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:17:11","slug":"oil-extends-losses-as-us-president-calls-off-planned-strikes-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/oil-extends-losses-as-us-president-calls-off-planned-strikes-on-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil extends losses as US President calls off planned strikes on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
Oil prices fell over $1 on Friday, extending losses from the \u200cprevious session after United States (US) President Donald Trump cancelled plans to strike Iran, reducing fears of an escalation of hostilities following tit-for-tat attacks earlier in the week.<\/div>\n
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Brent futures fell $1.83 or 2% to $88.55 a barrel at 0410 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.60, or 1.8%, \u200bto $86.11.<\/div>\n
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Trump, who had threatened to hit Iran “very hard”, called off planned strikes on Thursday, saying discussions \u200bwith Iran had progressed and a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of \u2060Hormuz to shipping could be signed as soon as this weekend.<\/div>\n
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Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that \u200bTehran had not approved the text of any agreement.<\/div>\n
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“While this could, of course, be yet another false dawn, the \u200bmarket’s reaction has been both swift and decisive,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.<\/div>\n
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He added that even as oil prices correct downwards, “as long as the price can hold above support in the low $80s, the risks remain firmly skewed to the upside.”<\/div>\n
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On Thursday, Iran \u200bannounced “the closure” of the Strait of Hormuz, through which vessel traffic was already severely limited, saying it would \u200bfire on any ship trying to pass through the waterway.<\/div>\n
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The strait normally carries a fifth of global oil and \u200cliquefied natural \u2060gas shipments and Tehran’s months long blockade has kept energy prices elevated.<\/div>\n
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State media reported on Friday that Iranian forces prevented a tanker from transiting the Strait of Hormuz without coordination.<\/div>\n
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The US military said on social media that commercial ships continued to transit the waterway.<\/div>\n
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“We would be cautious about assuming that the extension of the ceasefire is a \u200bdone deal. Even if it \u200bis, it could be \u2060fragile. And clearly, if nuclear talks do not progress, it could very easily fall apart,” said ING analysts in a Friday note.<\/div>\n
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“We believe the market reaches an inflection \u200bpoint in late July if we do not see oil flows resuming before \u200bthen.<\/div>\n
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This is \u2060when inventory levels and seasonally stronger demand push prices significantly higher towards $120 to $130 per barrel.”<\/div>\n
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–Reuters–<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20458,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-36874","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Oil prices fell over $1 on Friday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36875,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36874\/revisions\/36875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}