Oil Extends Five-Session Slide as Trump Defends Iran Policy at U.N.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures extended their losing streak through Sept. 22, while President Donald Trump used a U.N. address to defend his Iran policy and reject international controls on artificial intelligence.

WTI declined for a fifth straight session and has lost more than 14% across the five-session stretch. The move came as Trump spoke to the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22.

“There is no global government — and while I am President, there will be no global taxes,” Trump said. He also described artificial intelligence as “Super Intelligence.”

The United States, Denmark and Greenland signed an Arctic security agreement that provides for permanent U.S. basing rights and limits adversary military or sensitive investment activity in Greenland.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services canceled about 315,000 unauthorized marketplace enrollments covering more than 760,000 people. The agency estimated the action could return roughly $2.2 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies.

Anthropic introduced its Claude Opus 5.5 model Sept. 22. The company priced the model at $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, while stating that it costs 40% less to run than Claude Opus 5.

OpenAI expanded its GPT-6 family with GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna. Published API pricing lists GPT-6 Sol at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.

Royal Caribbean Group agreed to acquire a 50% equity interest in Sandals and Beaches Resorts for approximately $3 billion. The deal would move Royal Caribbean into Caribbean all-inclusive resort operations and is expected to close in early 2027, subject to approvals and other closing conditions.

The transaction implies a forward earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization multiple of about 10x. Morgan Stanley committed debt financing for the investment.

“Our partnership with Sandals and Beaches Resorts is an important next step on that journey,” Royal Caribbean Group Chairman and CEO Jason Liberty said.

The Arctic agreement, health insurance action, artificial intelligence launches and resort transaction all followed developments announced on Sept. 22, while the oil decline remained the clearest market move heading into Sept. 23.