Crude oil and refined product futures contracts were easing Thursday, with Brent crude prices pulling back after hitting a four-year high earlier in the day.

The declines come after petroleum futures have rallied for the past three trading sessions, with U.S. crude prices ending Wednesday's trading session more than $12/bbl above where they'd been before the gains.

U.S. oil prices were down about 2% at 11:15 a.m. ET, with the June West Texas Intermediate crude contract falling by $2.14 to $104.74/bbl after nearly touching $111/bbl earlier in the day. July WTI was trading $1.40 lower to $98.71/bbl.

Brent crude was 3.2% lower, with the lightly traded June contract down $3.77 to$114.26/bbl in its last day in the front-month position. Earlier in the session, the contract had climbed as high as $126.41/bbl following reports President Trump would be briefed by military commanders on possible action against Iran as negotiations between the two countries remain stalled. It was the highest Brent had traded since early March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The volatility caused by the light trading of the front-month contract was apparent as the more active July Brent contract was down just 92cts to $109.52/bbl with the day's high at $114.70/bbl.

May contracts for RBOB and ULSD are also in their last day as the front-month contract, and activity for both contracts is light.

May RBOB prices were 0.23ct lower to $3.7388/gal while June prices were down by 1.89cts to $3.5733/gal. May ULSD futures were trading 6.86cts lower to $4.1301/gal while the more-active June contract was down 3.64cts to $4.0622/gal. Earlier, the front-month contract had reached a high of $4.2957/gal.

Although prices are falling, markets remain highly volatile and headline-driven due to the Iran war, according to Daniel Takieddine CEO of Sky Links Capital Group.

"The market is expected to remain highly sensitive to further developments in the region, as any new escalation could push oil prices higher," he said.


This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.


Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Donna Harris, dharris@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-30-26 1207ET