Oil Prices Rise as U.S.-Iran Deal Faces Tests

Oil prices rose on Friday in a choppy trading session, as cracks started to emerge in the preliminary deal between the United States and Iran to end the war.Talks between officials representing the countries were postponed, with Vice President JD Vance delaying a scheduled trip to Switzerland for the next phase of negotiations amid Israel launching new strikes in Lebanon, highlighting the fragility of the agreement signed this week.With the status of conditions in Strait of Hormuz unclear, shipping companies weighed whether it was safe to transit the waterway, a crucial passageway for oil and gas in the Persian Gulf.Oil prices remain on track to fall for a second straight week, though, as traders react to apparent diplomatic breakthroughs, however tenuous, in recent days.Oil rises.The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, fluctuated throughout Friday before gaining momentum near the end of the trading day and rising nearly 1 percent, above $80 per barrel.

It remains more than 10 percent higher from the first days of the U.S.-Israeli strikes in late February.West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S.benchmark, was similarly choppy, rising about 1 percent to around $77 a barrel.Friday was an abbreviated trading session in honor of the Juneteenth holiday in the United States.Gasoline prices continue to fall.Gas prices dipped on Friday, falling a few pennies to a national average of $3.97 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club.

The average gallon of gas fell below $4 on Thursday for the first time since the early days of the war.Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by at least a few days.The average price of diesel slipped to $5.10 per gallon on Friday.It, like regular gas, remains more than 30 percent higher than before the war.Stocks are subdued.Futures on the S&P 500 fell slightly, but volumes are low because U.S.

markets are closed on Friday for the Juneteenth holiday.Stocks in Asia were mixed — ...