Topic
The level and movement of benchmark crude oil prices and the supply, demand and geopolitical factors that set them.
Brent crude sat at $104.74 a barrel on October 7, roughly $38.60 above a year earlier, according to Fortune's daily price page. A fuel or input budget built on last year's price now pays for just under two-thirds of the barrels it assumed.
Reality
Brent traded at $102.56 a barrel on Sept. 30, up $2.37 in a day and $35.87 above a year earlier, a rise of about 54%. Any plan that counts on oil staying above $100 depends on a $2.56 margin, and a drop the size of the latest gain would nearly wipe it out.
Reality
Brent fell $2.56 to $100.19 a barrel on Sept. 29, still $32.86 above a year earlier, according to Fortune. Anyone buying fuel is still paying about 49% more per barrel than last autumn, and the day's drop narrows that gap only slightly.
Reality
US crude fell 7.9% this week to $92.41 amid US-Iran talks on Hormuz while Brent ended roughly flat at $104.32. Tehran's reopening offer rests on a June deal that already collapsed over transit rights, and Brent has fallen on it for just one session.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
Net income of 103.94bn yuan on 1.5 trillion yuan of half-year revenue implies that roughly a quarter of every additional yuan landed as profit. That is a price story, and price sits outside shareholders' control to steer.
Reality
Brent topped $105 and the 10-year touched 4.902 per cent in the same session. The cash operation blamed for the yield move would cover about 1.5 basis points of annual interest on the debt it was meant to steady.
Reality
The Fed's first hike in three years took its benchmark to 3.75%-4% and the Dow down 1.7% for a third straight losing week. Chipmakers and data center suppliers sold off Monday on AI safety headlines and got most of it back by Friday.
Reality
WTI at about $102 has widened the gap between Singapore product prices and the capped price Korean refiners may charge at home. The industry puts its losses at 5 trillion won. No first settlement has been completed.
Reality
Bitcoin gained about 3% to $79,000 and took back its 50-week average at $77,430 after Trump said Iran wants a deal. Crude dipped but held above $100, and CME's FedWatch tool puts Wednesday's quarter-point hike at 92.7%.
Reality
A projectile hit a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on September 12-13, according to a UKMTO advisory, and on the worst days since the conflict began the corridor has carried two million barrels instead of twenty. Brent is above $100.
Reality
The KOSPI closed above 7,000 for the first time in 33 sessions on the 9th and gave the level back within two days, with Brent above $100 a barrel and the US 10-year at 4.97% ahead of next week's FOMC.
Reality
The East-West pipeline had been carrying more than double the Red Sea export volume it moved before the Iran war, and on Friday Saudi Arabia stopped it. Riyadh says it will not retaliate, and Trump says the Houthis called.
Reality
CME FedWatch odds of an increase at the Sept. 15-16 Fed meeting rose from 58% to 87% in a week as crude and Treasury yields climbed together. A week ago a hike was already the majority call.
Reality
Dubai crude rose $14.4 in a week to $114.7 a barrel while the Korean pump average fell 1.1 won to 1,859.1 a liter. The government's ninth-round maximum for gasoline is 1,784 won, and the report does not explain the gap.
Reality
The three-year treasury yield closed at 4.014% and WTI at $102.48, the KOSPI gave up the 7,000 level, and the money leaving Korea's safest funds landed in brokerage accounts with margin debt already at 32.36 trillion won.
Reality
Crude topped $101 and US diesel passed $200 a barrel for only the second time ever, leaving roughly $99 of refining margin between them, the piece of the shock that sits in refining capacity, not crude supply.
Reality