Crude oil's price floor is well below $70 a barrel now that Iran is under control and Venezuela is pumping oil. x.com
Stone Fox Capital
Founder, CIO & Portfolio Manager of Stone Fox Capital
Crude oil should fall back into the $60s and likely well below over time once the Iran war is resolved. Middle East producers are overproducing but cannot export the barrels, so when the Strait fully reopens they will flood the market. Oil tried to break down from its trend line but was rejected, and bigger resolution news is likely needed to push it much lower. Cheaper oil would remove current inflation fears, setting up a deflationary boom. x.com x.com
Oil should fall into the $60s as Iranian oil comes back online following the Iran news, which makes BofA's call for three rate hikes this year look foolish. With Warsh essentially confirming no action until winter, the backdrop is very bullish for markets, though rates have not yet dropped alongside oil as expected. x.com
Crude oil regains a geopolitical premium after the US revoked its Iran oil-sale waiver on July 7, putting Iranian supply back under sanctions after July 17. Supply can't normalize fast: Hormuz is only partly open, Gulf facilities are damaged and OPEC output has fallen, while US summer driving supports demand. Oil's price center may rise from about $67 a barrel in 2025 to above $70. Goldman's cut to $75 Brent for 2027 and weak 2026 demand remain risks. x.com
Crude oil now has more room to fall on a deal headline than to rise on the status quo, as Trump's rejection of Iran's seven-day Hormuz plan looks like a negotiating position, with negotiators due back this week and the Saudi foreign minister in Washington. The closed Strait put Brent back at $108 with Nov–Dec backwardation near $8. Speculators added shorts three weeks running, squeeze fuel above $100 if talks fail; a deal would leave about 101,828 contracts of net length as supply. x.com x.com
Sustained high energy prices strain US farming, logistics, manufacturing and consumers, so crude oil should fall dramatically from its elevated level. Middle East and Russia tensions are lifting WTI, shown near $103, while Trump will likely step in at some point to reduce uncertainty. x.com x.com
A possible US strike on Iran poses near-term upside risk for crude oil. If Trump expects to lose the midterms, he may act between Israel's October 27 election and the November 3 US vote. Crude has filled the $101 gap and reached the rising channel's midpoint; if it keeps breaking higher, the next levels are $105, $110 and the channel top near $115. x.com
More oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz and continued OPEC and Russian production should push crude oil lower. It has fallen from about $106 to $96 over the past month. x.com
Crude oil faces a strong bearish headwind from potential new supply, as the Trump administration is reportedly close to a deal for ownership stakes in Venezuelan oil fields that US officials estimate could more than double US reserves. A textbook double top on the daily chart has price rejecting resistance and accelerating lower. The downside target is the 200-day EMA, where a bounce could follow if institutional buyers defend it. x.com
Crude oil at $70 prices in far too much optimism and should see $80 before $60. The IRGC knows Trump wants a deal and has little appetite to restart the war, which makes further escalation easy to underestimate. If the Strait of Hormuz is not fully reopened within weeks to a month, the market will realize the disruption is not temporary, and any Iranian transit fees on Hormuz shipping would likely be passed on to buyers. US VP Vance says violence will be met with violence. x.com
Oil's slide from $120 during the war to $79 should continue as the US-Iran deal, due to be signed on the 19th in Switzerland, reopens the Strait of Hormuz and ends the US naval blockade, restoring choked supply. Cheaper oil lowers US inflation and flips the market from expecting another hike toward rate cuts, lifting risk assets. The deal is only a 60-day MOU, though, and Israel is the problem: if anything blows up, oil rips and the chain runs in reverse. x.com