Crude oil prices fall to $96/bbl over ongoing US-Iran peace deal negotiations; gold up 1%

Crude oil prices dropped to $96 per barrel (bbl) during the early Asian market hours on Monday, May 25, as global investors focus on the United States and Iran moving closer to signing a potential peace deal to end the West Asia conflict this week.

Although the market sentiment remained positive on hopes of an upcoming agreement, the investors remained quite cautious due to US President Donald Trump’s recent Truth Social post, that the deal is not “fully negotiated yet.”

Global benchmark Brent crude oil prices dropped more than 5% to under the $100 per bbl psychological level during the evening market session on Sunday, May 24. During the evening trading hours, the crude oil prices dropped to an intraday low of around $98 per bbl, after opening at $99 per bbl.

Last week, the crude oil prices closed above $101 per bbl after Friday’s trading hours.

The US-based West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices dropped to a low of $90.9 per bbl during the early hours on Monday, May 25, after opening lower for the second trading session.

Oil prices today

At 7:24 am (IST), the Brent crude oil prices were trading 0.92% lower at $99.27 per bbl on Monday, May 25, compared to $100.21 per bbl at the previous commodity market close, according to Investing.com data.

WTI crude oil prices were trading 4.4% lower at $92.30 per bbl as of 7:25 am (IST) on Monday’s market, compared to $96.6 per bbl at the previous market close, as per the exchange data.

US-Iran peace deal progress

Reports over the weekend suggested that both the United States and Iran have been progressing towards a peace agreement, as Trump said that both countries have “largely negotiated” a deal, which can put an end to the conflict, which has now entered its 13th week.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said that the peace deal “isn’t even fully negotiated yet” as America continues to push for removing Nuclear weapons from Iran. He further said that “nobody has seen it, or knows what it is.”

According to a recent CNN report, the United States is not expected to sign a deal with Iran today, as the terms of the agreement are still under negotiation, as per a senior administrative official.

The report also mentioned that the specific dollar amount that Iran would receive as part of the potential deal is yet to be negotiated.

Gold prices today

At 9:46 pm (ET), the New York Mercantile Exchange-based COMEX gold prices were trading 0.94% higher at $4,565.50 per ounce in the United States on Sunday evening, compared with $4,523.20 per ounce at the previous commodity market close.

Gold prices were trading higher during Monday’s market, India time, due to a subdued demand for the US dollar in the market on high hopes of a potential peace deal between the United States and Iran this week.

Traders are likely to purchase more of the precious metal gold on a lower US dollar rate as they will be able to purchase a higher quantity at a lower price.

Data collected from the Bloomberg US Dollar spot index (DYX) showed that the greenback was trading 0.24% lower at 99 as of 9:48 pm (ET), compared to the previous currency market close.