Trump Says U.S. Needs No Deal With Iran as Brent Crude Jumps Above $94

Oil prices jumped Thursday after President Donald Trump said the United States does not need a deal with Iran, a post on social media that pushed Brent crude from about $92 a barrel to above $94 before it eased back.

“We don’t need a deal with Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!”

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was most recently at $93.34 a barrel, up 0.6 percent, according to the Associated Press. The price has swung sharply since the United States and Israel began the war with Iran in late February, trading between roughly $70 and $150 a barrel.

Trump also said he had asked Vice President JD Vance to focus on investigating U.S. cities and states run by Democrats rather than on talks with Iran. The shift in tone followed weeks in which the administration had pursued a diplomatic path to end the war.

Oil had rebounded from two-month lows earlier in the week as tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz dimmed hopes for a truce.

Stocks and bonds react

The S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.9 percent in morning trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 15 points, or less than 0.1 percent, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time. Nvidia’s 9.7 percent drop pulled the market lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 5.03 percent from 4.98 percent.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly in Europe after a weaker finish in Asia, where Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3 percent.

The benchmark has rallied more than 50 percent this year, the Associated Press reported, but it has fallen sharply this month on hopes the conflict would ease. Thursday’s jump reversed part of that decline.

Reporting based on coverage by the Associated Press.