{"id":34349,"date":"2026-02-17T22:23:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T03:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/17\/brent-retreats-as-market-eyes-us-iran-nuclear-talks\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:23:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T03:23:44","slug":"brent-retreats-as-market-eyes-us-iran-nuclear-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/17\/brent-retreats-as-market-eyes-us-iran-nuclear-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Brent retreats as market eyes US-Iran nuclear talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Brent oil prices were largely stable today, as investors braced for nuclear talks between Iran and the US, and trilateral US-Ukraine-Russia peace talks, both taking place in Geneva.<\/p>\n

Brent crude futures were down 10 cents, or 0.15%, at $68.55 a barrel this afternoon after a 1.33% gain yesterday.<\/p>\n

US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $63.58 a barrel, up 69 cents, or 1.1%, but the move included all of yesterday’s price action as the contract did not have a settlement that day due to the Presidents Day holiday in the US.<\/p>\n

Many Asian markets were closed today for Lunar New Year holidays, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore.<\/p>\n

Investors are watching US-Iran relations as any escalation or conflict could lead to Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil export route, which would severely impact global oil exports.<\/p>\n

Russia-Ukraine peace talks are also in focus because any peace resolution could see a lifting of sanctions, bringing Russian oil back to the mainstream market.<\/p>\n

“Market sentiment is closely tied to the tone and progress of these negotiations, sustaining a geopolitical risk premium in prices,” said Sugandha Sachdeva, founder of SS WealthStreet, a New Delhi-based research firm.<\/p>\n

Oil prices are therefore likely to stay volatile, with sharp two-way swings driven by diplomatic signals rather than pure demand-supply fundamentals, Sachdeva added.<\/p>\n

Washington and Tehran began indirect talks in Geneva today focusing on their long-running nuclear dispute amid a US military buildup in the Middle East. Iran’s supreme leader warned today any US attempt to depose his government would fail.<\/p>\n

Iran will close parts of the Strait of Hormuz for a few hours today due to “security precautions” for shipping safety, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, as the Revolutionary Guards conduct military drills in the waterway.<\/p>\n

“Both sides are under pressure to reach an agreement in order to avoid military escalation,” Commerzbank analysts said in a note.<\/p>\n

Also in Geneva today, Ukrainian and Russian officials are set to meet for a new round of US-brokered peace talks, which the Kremlin said would likely focus on territory, the main sticking point.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure continue. The Ukrainian military said today that it had struck the Ilsky refinery, while a drone attack was also reported at the port of Taman.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, oil production at Kazakhstan’s giant Tengiz oil field is gradually increasing after an outage in January, Russian news agency Interfax reported.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brent oil prices were largely stable today, as investors braced for nuclear talks between Iran and the US, and trilateral US-Ukraine-Russia peace talks, both taking place in Geneva. Brent crude futures were down 10 cents, or 0.15%, at $68.55 a barrel this afternoon after a 1.33% gain yesterday. US West Texas Intermediate crude was at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}