NEW YORK: Oil prices fell about 5 per cent on Tuesday after Iran and Israel said they had halted attacks on each other following an appeal from US President Donald Trump.

Brent futures fell $4.30, or 4.6pc, to $89.95 a barrel at 12:38 p.m. EDT (1638 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid $4.95, or 5.4pc, to $86.35.

That put Brent on track for its lowest close since April 17 and WTI on track for its lowest close since May 29.

Crude prices briefly pared losses around midday, down by just $2 a barrel, after Trump said Iran shot down a US Apache helicopter that was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz overnight. Trump added that the US, “must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

“The oil market is drifting lower... as the latest shooting match between Israel and Iran was diffused in favour of a ceasefire and as Trump continues to talk the market lower by suggesting that an end of the war with Iran could be reached in 2-3 days with negotiations in their final stages,” analysts at energy advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates said in a note.

Iran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Wash­ington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday that ship traffic in the Gulf and oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are rising even as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal on ending their more than three-month-old war.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2026