Oil Falls for Third Straight Day as Trump Cites 'Deep Talks' With Iran, Oman Pushes Hormuz Fix

Oil keeps sliding as the pause holds

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude fell for a third consecutive session on Tuesday, July 28, according to Dow Jones. The drop tracks with a pause in fighting between the U.S. and Iran that has continued after two weeks of renewed hostilities.

President Trump said Tuesday that "deep talks" with Iran are underway, according to Dow Jones reporting carried by Morningstar. Oil prices declined further after the comment.

Separately, Iran and Oman are seeking an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz in a bid to jumpstart peace talks, according to Dow Jones. Mediators are using the lull in fighting to try to patch together a quick fix that reopens the strait, hoping it paves the way for substantive talks.

Big Oil's position

Dow Jones also flagged a dynamic that's been building since the war resumed: oil majors are making serious money off the volatility, and that puts them in a tough spot with an administration that has spent two years hammering energy companies over gas prices. The framing from Dow Jones is blunt. The industry is "contending with one of its toughest challenges yet" under the current administration.

China keeps buying, sanctions or not

According to the Wall Street Journal, China has found a way to keep buying Mideast oil despite the blockades and disruptions from the Iran war, using its long-standing position as both a financial lifeline to Tehran and a customer for Iran's adversaries to work around restrictions.

That's consistent with reporting that China has been in touch with Yemen's Houthis to help ensure its own ships can sail through the Red Sea, according to Reuters.

A reasonable skeptic of hawkish China framing would point out that Beijing isn't doing anything illegal here. Plenty of countries route around embargoes when it serves their economic interest. The fair question is whether U.S. sanctions policy has any teeth left if the largest buyer of Iranian oil can work around restrictions while smaller players get squeezed.

Markets elsewhere: Dow up, chips down

Away from oil, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied Tuesday while chip stocks sold off, according to Dow Jones, as investors moved out of AI-related names and into sectors that had lagged this year.

Meta's data-center financing push is a piece of that story. The company priced a $12.5 billion debt offering at a higher interest rate than a comparable deal a year earlier, according to Dow Jones, a sign that the cost of funding the AI buildout is climbing as companies flood the market with new debt.

Consumer confidence isn't helping the mood. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to 90.8 in July from an upwardly revised 92.2 in June, missing the 92.0 reading economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had expected.

What's actually unresolved

The pause in fighting between the U.S. and Iran has held for several days, according to Dow Jones, and Iran and Oman are trying to use that lull to reach a Hormuz agreement that could open the door to broader peace talks. Whether Trump's "deep talks" produce anything durable, or whether Iran and Oman can actually land a framework that holds, remains open. Oil traders are pricing in optimism right now. Whether that optimism survives past this week is the question nobody in these markets can answer yet.