CRUDE WRAP: WTI (X6) SETTLES USD 1.64 HIGHER AT USD 92.16/BBL; BRENT (Z6) SETTLES USD 2.71 HIGHER AT 98.12/BBL

Crude holding firm in the absence of tangible diplomatic progress follows the standard pattern around protracted US-Iran negotiations: headline-driven intraday swings on each negotiating readout, with the risk premium only durably unwinding on signed or verifiable steps, and UNGA speeches of this kind historically producing more noise than signal. The diesel export story is the more mechanical one. The distinction between a voluntary cap and an outright ban is the distinction between a soft and a hard distortion of the Atlantic basin product balance: an actual ban would divert US distillate supply domestically, pressuring domestic cracks while tightening the European and Latin American import markets that rely on Gulf Coast flows, which is why the contradictory White House and agency headlines whipsawed diesel while leaving the crack only modestly changed by the settle. Administrations weighing export restrictions have historically floated and then retreated from them given refiner opposition and retaliation risk, so denials of this kind have tended to stick more often than the initial reports. The EIA print sat in the background: a crude build alongside a larger-than-expected gasoline draw is a mixed demand signal, and sessions where geopolitics dominates typically treat inventory data as secondary unless the surprise is large. Follow-ons are the next negotiating readout, any formalisation of the diesel cap, and whether product spreads begin to price the ban scenario again.