CRUDE WRAP: WTI (V6) SETTLES USD 0.29 HIGHER AT USD 91.30/BBL; BRENT (X6) SETTLES USD 0.11 LOWER AT USD 95.52/BBL

The crude complex settled with gains, seeing two-way action through the session. Overnight and through the European morning, WTI and Brent ground lower to hit troughs of USD 89.57/bbl and 94.03/bbl, respectively, after Russian President Putin remarked that Russia and Ukraine should agree first and that there is an opportunity to reach a peace agreement. Thereafter, benchmarks pared all losses to move to highs, but with no headline catalyst behind the moves, as Middle East headlines, for a change, were light. The main macro driver on Thursday were dovish comments from the influential Fed Governor Waller, who remarked he supports holding the policy rate steady at the September FOMC meeting if August inflation data shows continued progress.

A muted reaction was seen in response to an NYP report that Oman has quietly rejected Iran’s request to jointly charge service fees on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Elsewhere, Russian Deputy PM Novak said OPEC's role in the market remains important and will continue to exert significant influence on the oil market because of its high output. As a reminder, sources on Wednesday reported that the OPEC+ meeting on Sunday will not make any oil output policy decisions and will focus on discussing market conditions.

Sessions of this shape, where peace-talk headlines knock benchmarks lower and the move then fully retraces without a confirming catalyst, are a recurring feature of geopolitically driven crude: headline risk premium gets stripped on any hint of de-escalation and rebuilt when nothing concrete follows, leaving positioning rather than fundamentals doing the round trip. The Putin remarks fit the established pattern in which ceasefire or negotiation headlines compress the war premium embedded since the conflict began, with the recovery underscoring how thin the follow-through has tended to be absent an actual agreement. The macro overlay mattered more than usual, with dovish Fed commentary softening the dollar and easing financial conditions at the margin, a channel that has historically supported the complex independently of oil-specific news. The Oman report on the Strait of Hormuz is the tell worth filing away: joint fee proposals with Iran touch transit and insurance costs through the world's most sensitive chokepoint, and a quiet rejection keeps that tail risk dormant rather than resolved. The immediate calendar item is the weekend OPEC+ gathering, which source reporting has framed as a non-event on output policy, meaning the group stays in its monitoring posture and the supply side remains a story of compliance and spare capacity rather than fresh quotas. Novak's remarks affirming OPEC's continued influence are boilerplate of the kind Russian officials have issued repeatedly when coordination questions surface.