Brent crude traded around $72.5–$73.2 a barrel in early dealings on 29 June, with prints near $73.17 marking a gain of roughly 0.8% after a 28 June settle near $72.35 [E1][E2].
That lift sat inside a much sharper weekly retreat: benchmarks were down roughly 10% over the week and remained far below early-June crisis peaks that had pushed Brent above $90–$100 [E3].
West Texas Intermediate tracked the same pattern, settling near $69.86 on 28 June and printing around $70 in early Monday trade [E4].
Washington and Tehran agreed late on 28 June to “stand down for now,” halting tit-for-tat attacks and allowing vessels to “move freely” through the Strait of Hormuz while technical talks continued [E5].
No fresh tanker hits or intercepts were reported on 29 June, after Iranian drone strikes on the Panama-flagged oil tanker Kiku around 26–27 June and retaliatory US strikes on Iranian coastal sites had rattled a market closed for the weekend [E6][E8].
Oilprice and cross-checked energy desks read the price action as a continued bleed-out of the Hormuz war-risk premium built since February, with traders betting on resumed flows after the mid-June memorandum and the latest stand-down [E3][E7].
Shippers and underwriters have not mirrored that calm on the screen: war-risk premiums stayed extremely elevated relative to pre-crisis baselines even as transit permissions widened, which keeps a floor under volatility should a single new incident re-price the lane overnight [E7].
For the tape, the working read is de-escalation priced in faster than insurance and AIS confirm; spot Brent near $73 is a relief rally inside a broken weekly trend, and the tell on whether the premium stays drained is freight quotes and vessel tracks through Hormuz, not the headline barrel alone [E3][E5].