Brent Crude Falls 7.47% in Midday Snapshot as Iran Talks Continue

Brent crude futures fell $8.47, or 7.47%, to $104.96 a barrel in a 12:24 p.m. ET (17:24 UTC) snapshot Monday, Nov. 2. Separately, United Airlines shares rose 4.8% and Southwest Airlines shares gained 3.6% during Monday’s U.S. session.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $7.50, or 7.2%, to $96.62 a barrel in the same oil-price snapshot. The airline share changes were reported for the session, while the crude prices were recorded at a specific time.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said consultations through Qatar and Pakistan were continuing. He said Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume negotiations if Washington accepted Tehran’s conditions; otherwise, the current situation would continue. The terms echo Iran’s conditional Hormuz proposal.

Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said diplomatic hopes and the absence of a major military escalation over the weekend had taken “some of the immediate heat out of prices for now.”

Fuel is a significant airline expense. United’s aircraft fuel costs were $11.396 billion in 2025, within $54.356 billion in total operating expenses. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) projected fuel would account for 31.4% of airline operating expenses in 2026, up from 25.4% in 2025 as jet-fuel prices rose.

Crude and jet fuel are different price measures. The drop in crude alone does not show whether jet-fuel prices or airlines’ fuel expenses fell by the same amount.