Oil prices hover near pre-war levels as Qatar cites 'positive progress' in US-Iran talks

Oil prices fell for a fourth straight day on Thursday after news that the US and Iran have made progress in diplomatic talks over the end of the war and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Futures on Brent crude, the international benchmark, ticked down by 0.8% to trade below $71 per barrel, while those on US benchmark WTI crude  shed roughly 1.1% to fall below $68 a barrel, holding at prices not seen since the first days of March.

After news on Wednesday that the US and Iran had concluded first-round talks in Doha with no clear progress made, the foreign ministry of host country Qatar said in an X post on Thursday that "positive progress" had been made between the two nations' negotiators.

Next-round talks are being scheduled for a date after the funeral processions on July 9 for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran in late February.

"Crude oil prices are back at near pre-war levels, as if more than 100 days of conflict that shut one of the world's most important shipping lanes and triggered the largest oil supply shock in modern history never happened," Natasha Kaneva, head of commodities research at JPMorgan, said Thursday in a note to clients.