Oil prices jump 5% as Trump ends Iran talks

Oil prices jumped more than 5% after President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire with Iran over and said negotiations were “a waste of time dealing with them.” The move came during a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, and sent Brent crude to about $78.09 a barrel while U.S. benchmark crude climbed to about $74.55.

The escalation stripped away the few remaining off-ramps in a conflict that had already turned volatile. The ceasefire had held for about three weeks before it began to unravel, and the U.S.-Iran arrangement had been described as a memorandum of understanding rather than a final peace treaty. Once Trump signaled that talks were finished, the dispute moved out of crisis management and back toward open-ended confrontation.

The latest violence centered on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping route that is critical to global oil supplies. The U.S. launched fresh strikes on Iran after attacks on tankers and commercial vessels in the waterway, deepening fears that oil flows could be disrupted again. Traders responded immediately, pushing prices higher as they weighed the risk of a wider regional war.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they retaliated by targeting U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait, including Bandar Salman in Bahrain and Ali Salem Air Base in Kuwait. In a further escalation, Iran said it shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone. The strikes widened the conflict beyond maritime attacks and put military sites across the Gulf within range of the confrontation.

The market reaction showed how quickly the fight over Hormuz can spill into the global economy. A move of more than 5% in crude prices threatened to feed directly into fuel costs, shipping expenses and freight rates well beyond the Middle East. With no ceasefire holding and no treaty in place, investors were left to price in the risk that the confrontation could spread further and stay elevated.