<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
High gas prices sent U.S. drivers in search of discount fuel at big-box membership chains like Costco.<\/p>\n
The retailer said Thursday that it saw \u201crecord-breaking volumes\u201d for gasoline sales last quarter, with the five weeks leading up to May 10 registering as Costco\u2019s \u201ctop five volume weeks ever\u201d for gasoline sales. CEO Ron Vachris said many Costco members had used the company\u2019s gas stations \u201cfor the very first time.\u201d <\/p>\n
The sharp drop in global oil prices was prompted mainly by messaging from Washington, where President Donald Trump and top administration officials have relentlessly suggested that Iran and the U.S. are in the final stages of talks to end the fighting and return energy shipping to a prewar status quo.<\/p>\n
In May alone, Trump claimed in at least six social media posts that progress had been made toward a peace deal. In public events, he frequently stresses that Iran \u201cwants to make a deal\u201d and paints himself as the holdout.<\/p>\n
In the three months since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran, Trump has said more than 20 times, online and in person, that either the war had been won, that Iran had been defeated or that a final deal was near, according to an NBC News analysis of his comments.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, two U.S. officials told NBC News that Trump was reviewing the latest version of a potential agreement with Iran but had not yet signed off on it.<\/p>\n
Again on Friday, Trump invoked the possibility of a deal, writing on Truth Social that he was about to make a \u201cfinal determination\u201d about it. Oil prices fell further in response to his post.<\/p>\n
But even as a deal remains elusive, Trump\u2019s comments left investors grasping at any shred of optimism.<\/p>\n
U.S. stocks are surging this year, driven primarily by euphoria in the shares of AI tech giants and corporate earnings, but also due to the administration\u2019s signals that they view the war to be near its end. <\/p>\n
Analysts at ING warn that the market may be getting ahead of itself, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question now is whether the Strait of Hormuz will reopen soon or the extended ceasefire will only lead to another prolonged stalemate,\u201d ING market strategist Francesco Pesole said Friday. <\/p>\n
In February, before the war started, more than 20% of the world\u2019s energy supply transited through the strait off Iran\u2019s southern coast to reach global markets. <\/p>\n
But in the months since, vessel traffic has been almost nonexistent \u2014 the bottleneck being the primary reason for the sharp rise in global energy prices.<\/p>\n
Who will control the crucial waterway and what, if anything, Iran would demand from shippers in exchange for safe passage are still massive, unanswered questions. <\/p>\n
Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said Friday that the company would not consider paying a toll or fee to Iran or any other authority to get its ships out of the strait, something that Iran has proposed but which the U.S. says is a deal-breaker.<\/p>\n
Even once the war is over, \u201cit\u2019s going to take months \u2026 to make sure that the mines have been cleared, to get 2,000 ships out\u201d of the strait, Wirth said on Bloomberg Television. \u201cThey don\u2019t all go out at once; you need weeks and weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just this week, there were new attacks on ships, \u201cso we see risks very real, still, in that environment,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Without guaranteed safe passage, transiting the strait is still too dangerous for commercial shipping interests \u2014 and their insurance companies \u2014 to go ahead with.<\/p>\n
This week, energy industry leaders warned that the oil market is on the verge of higher prices again. <\/p>\n
\u201cCommercial inventories of crude oil, of liquids-linked petroleum, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, they\u2019ve all run down,\u201d to backfill the millions of barrels per day that can\u2019t be shipped through the Strait of Hormuz currently, Neil Chapman, senior vice president at Exxon Mobil, said Thursday. \u201cWe\u2019re approaching unheard-of inventory levels.\u201d <\/p>\n