Traders bet $500 mil. on oil price just before Trump’s post on delay to Iran attack

LONDON — Traders bet half a billion dollars on the price of crude only 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump announced a five-day delay to attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure that sent the market plunging, exchange data and Reuters calculations showed. Having issued Iran with a Monday deadline to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz or face its power plants being “obliterated,” Trump’s post on Truth Social at 1105 GMT on Monday unleashed a powerful selloff in oil and natural gas. Brent crude fell as much as 15 percent in a matter of minutes as Trump indicated constructive talks between Washington and Tehran were ongoing, prompting investors to price in the possibility of a de-escalation that could unblock the millions of barrels of oil now choked off in the Gulf. LSEG data shows that between 1049 and 1050 GMT, traders placed bets on 5,100 lots of Brent and WTI crude futures, worth well over $500 million, based on a Reuters calculation. The data also shows that, in the minute in which those contracts changed hands, it was selling that dominated volumes. It was not possible

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