A solid portion of the decline in oil this week was due to rising expectations of a nuclear deal but reports today are throwing that into question.
The WSJ's Laurence Norman outlines steps backwards in one of the two of the main sticking points of negotiations: Iran's insistence on closing the investigation into nuclear material foundin a previous IEAE probe.
The other potential stumbling block are guarantees that Iran wants regarding the US leaving the deal under a future President. However we haven't heard anything new on that, suggesting the 2 year grace period for corporations to stop doing business with Iran is acceptable.
Previously, it was reported that Iran wanted to at least assess the tone of a mid-September IAEA meeting before moving forward.
The Iran news and murmurs today lifted oil but the negative news in the market after the Nord Stream news overwhelmed it and WTI crude settled up just 26 cents to $86.87. That's the lowest weekly close since the war.
