00:00Oil prices jumped around 6% in Monday trading on uncertainty over peace talks between the U.S. and Iran
00:07after violence flare around the Strait of Hormuz.
00:10Brand crude futures settled $5.10 or 5.64%, higher to $95.48 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate
00:19Advanced $5.70, 76 cents or 6.87% at $89.61.
00:30Both contracts had tumbled by 9% on Friday for their largest daily declines since April 18 after Iran said
00:36that passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz was open for the remainder of the ceasefire.
00:43Over the weekend, the U.S. seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to break through its blockade while Iran
00:48said it would retaliate, heightening fears of a resumption in hostilities.
00:52With a two-week ceasefire set to expire later this week, the renewed hostility cast doubts over prospects for a
00:59second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran in Pakistan.
01:03Iran is considering attending the peace talks, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday but no decision had been
01:10made.
01:10The Gulf Nation's Foreign Minister Abbas Arachid told his Pakistani counterpart, Ishak Dar, that the U.S. continued violations of
01:18the ceasefire are a major obstacle to the continuation of the diplomatic process, an Iranian foreign ministry statement said on
01:25Monday.
01:26Trump asked over the weekend about the chance of a ceasefire extension, said he doesn't know, maybe not, maybe he
01:32won't extend it, but the blockade is going to remain.
01:35Despite uncertainty over the ceasefire, analysts noted oil prices were of the high scene at the beginning of the Middle
01:42East conflict.
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