Brent crude steadies above $66 as Gaza ceasefire eases Mideast tensions

[Stack of Blue Industrial Barrels Stored at a Manufacturing Facility]
Ervan Widjaja/iStock via Getty Images

Brent crude oil futures held firm above $66 per barrel on Thursday, as investors took note of a ceasefire deal in Gaza that could ease geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of his Gaza peace plan, in a major step to end two years of devastating warfare.

The oil market came under some pressure this morning after reports of a potential breakthrough on the Middle East peace deal. Higher oil inventory in the US further added to the pressure on oil prices, ING analysts said.

Futures have, however, changed course to tick higher. WTI crude (CL1:COM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CL1:COM]) was up 0.2% at $62.68/bbl at the time of writing.

Elsewhere, Serbia’s Russian-owned oil firm NIS said Thursday it failed to obtain another U.S. sanctions waiver, putting fuel supplies at risk for the country’s only refinery and largest importer.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on NIS, one of Russia's last remaining energy assets in Europe, in January, part of a wider move to isolate Russian energy assets.

On the interest rate front, there was some division at the Federal Reserve's last meeting about whether to cut rates and by how much, though most agreed the central bank could cut rates further in 2025, according to the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's Sept. 16-17 meeting, which were released Wednesday.

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