Market News

Key Points

• Oil prices fell as concerns over disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz eased.
• Trump urged a DOJ probe into fuel prices, accusing oil companies of gouging consumers.
• International benchmark Brent crude futures for August fell to its lowest level since Feb. 27, a day before he U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Oil extended losses on Wednesday as concerns over potential supply disruptions eased, while investors monitored developments in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

International benchmark Brent crude futures for August fell 1.7% to $75.79 per barrel, notching its lowest level since Feb. 27, a day before the start of the U.S. and Israeli-led war against Iran.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for August were last seen 1.7% lower at $71.98 per barrel.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized oil companies for not lowering gasoline prices in line with the recent decline in crude prices.

“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil. Those prices are dropping like a rock!,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

“In other words, customers are being “gouged.” I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!,” he added.

CNBC has contacted the U.S. Department of Justice for comment and is awaiting a response.

Karen Young, a senior research scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, described the post as “political theater,” noting “that’s not really how gasoline prices work in the U.S.”

“There are state and local taxes, which are applied to the price of gas at stations in the United States,” Young told CNBC’s “Access Middle East.”

“It really is up to refiners, and it takes a couple of weeks before crude prices drop, and then prices at refineries, and then on to consumers before they can really respond.”