(RTTNews) – Crude oil rose on Friday, recovering from the previous session’s slide as traders focused on progress in US-Iran talks ahead of bigger moves, while the US issued an advisory asking its citizens to evacuate from Iran, raising concerns of war.
WTI crude oil for March delivery was last seen trading up $0.20 (or 0.32%) at $63.49 a barrel.
With the US changing stance as the US-Iran conflict escalates, traders preferred to wait and see before placing strong bets.
After ordering a US military contingent to shut down Iran, US President Donald Trump threatened Iran to negotiate with the US over its nuclear programs or face heavy attacks.
Although Iran had initially rejected the threats and declared its readiness to counter any US attack, it later backed down and agreed to only direct talks without any mediator.
Meanwhile, a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea shot down an “aggressively” approaching Iranian drone.
Trump said in an interview with NBC News that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be concerned, but he did not elaborate on what he meant.
The US issued an advisory to its citizens in Iran asking them to leave the country immediately by any means without waiting for US assistance.
On the diplomatic track, the Iranian side was led by its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and the US was represented by Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, with the first day of talks concluding today with both sides refraining from disclosing any specific details.
Iran is the fourth-largest oil producer in the OPEC alliance and controls the Strait of Hormuz, a key choke point for global oil transit.
A direct US-Iran military confrontation could disrupt Iran’s oil production and any Iranian retaliation could adversely affect supply routes.
Yesterday, a second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine to discuss a US-authored peace proposal ended in a deadlock. The only significant outcome of the talks held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates was an agreement on the exchange of 314 prisoners of war by the two countries.
However, the US, Russia and Ukraine said positively that the talks were progressing progressively, with further discussions still to come.
America and India have recently signed a bilateral trade agreement, according to which India will stop buying oil from Russia and buy oil from America.
As a result, some 12 million barrels of Russian crude oil is reportedly en route to China in East Asian waters.
Yesterday’s US Labor Department data on initial jobless claims showed they rose by 22,000 from the previous week in the last week of January to 231,000, above market expectations of 212,000.
Continuous jobless claims rose to 1,844,000 in the week ending January 24.
Weaker than expected US labor market data has raised expectations for a rate cut.
Today, consumer sentiment data from the University of Michigan showed that the index for February rose 0.9 to 57.3, compared to the expected decline of 55.0, marking the third consecutive monthly increase and limiting losses in the US dollar.
Five-year inflation expectations rose to 3.40% in February from 3.30% in January.
The US Dollar Index was last seen trading down 0.18 points (or 0.18%) today at 97.64.
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