Oil crashes below $80: Brent at $79.61, WTI at $76.88 as US Iran talks on reopening Hormuz send markets down for third straight session
WTI and Brent lost more than 10% in three days. Trump promised to reopen the strait by Friday. Yet prices remain well above pre war levels from late February, when they exceeded $90 per barrel.
As reported by CCTV+, hopes for continued US Iran negotiations to end hostilities in the Middle East drove international crude futures further down on Tuesday. Brent briefly dipped below $80 a barrel. In early trade, July delivery West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 4.79% to close at $76.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. August delivery Brent fell 4.28% to close at $79.61 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz would be fully reopened by Friday. Oil prices have fallen for three consecutive trading sessions since the announcement of the completion of the US Iran memorandum of understanding. Over this period, both WTI and Brent have dropped more than 10%. Despite the sharp decline, international benchmark oil prices remain significantly higher than before the US Israeli war against Iran began in late February.
The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic maritime chokepoint through which about 20% of global oil passes. Its effective closure since February 28, 2026, caused a record price surge. Pakistan mediated US Iran talks led to a ceasefire agreement, easing market tensions. Yet even after the crash, Brent ($79.61) and WTI ($76.88) are nearly double the early February levels of around $40 45 per barrel. The market is pricing in the strait’s reopening, but geopolitical uncertainty remains.
The market is the planet’s nervous system. As soon as hope for peace emerged, oil crashed. Three consecutive days of decline — like three pulses returning to normal. But the “normal” before the war was $40 a barrel. Now $80 is considered a drop. That means war has already changed the economy forever. When Trump promises to reopen the strait by Friday, traders are frantically recalculating risks. Even if tankers start moving tomorrow, old prices will not return. Because fear, like oil, does not disappear — it merely flows into a new form.
