[MARKET ANALYSIS] Oil prices attempt to nurse losses after slumping on Trump's strike cancellation and touted talks

WTI/Brent: WTI Sep'26 +0.9% / Brent Oct'26 +0.9%

• Oil nurses some of its losses after slumping yesterday due to Trump's cancellation of Iran strikes and touted talks, while he also stated that they are talking about having the Strait open by Tuesday. Nonetheless, oil prices are mildly higher overnight amid some reports of Iran targeting a US base in Kuwait with three drones and with UKMTO announcing a vessel was struck by an unknown projectile off Oman's coast.

Gold: +0.1%

• Trades indecisively amid the recent decline in yields and a resilient dollar, while participants also await key US jobs data later in the week.

Copper: +0.3%

• Prices are kept afloat following the stock market rally on Wall St, but with gains capped amid the indecision in Asia.

Episodes of this kind, where a geopolitical premium built around a chokepoint threat unwinds on diplomatic signalling, have historically retraced in stages rather than in one move: the initial de-escalation headline takes out the risk premium, and the market then re-tests whether the physical disruption risk was actually removed or merely deferred. The distinction worth drawing is between the cancellation of a strike, which removes an escalation trigger, and the status of the Strait itself, since it is actual tanker traffic, freight rates and war-risk insurance premia that determine how much of the earlier spike was fundamental versus speculative. The countervailing reports of strikes on regional targets and a vessel hit offshore are the usual noise that accompanies such standoffs; comparable episodes have shown that prices stabilise only once shipping confirmations, rather than statements, verify passage. The calendar, with key US employment data due, shifts attention back toward the demand side of the barrel and the dollar leg of the trade. Gold's indecision against softer yields and a firm dollar, and copper riding the equity tone, fit the established cross-asset pattern when a war premium bleeds out. The tell to watch is whether crude's bounce holds absent fresh kinetic headlines, which in past episodes has marked the point where positioning, not news, was doing the work.