Oil Prices Hit $90 as Trump Denies Iran Relief

Crude oil prices for November delivery climbed to $90.40 a barrel on Wednesday, recovering from a 3.5 percent decline the previous day. The price increase followed reports that Qatari-mediated diplomatic efforts to broker a breakthrough between the United States and Iran had made little progress.

Donald Trump contributed to the upward trend by denying reports that he was willing to release frozen funds or grant sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for reductions in its nuclear program. These geopolitical tensions offset a report from the Energy Information Administration, which showed an unexpected increase of 0.9 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending September 25. This brought total U.S. inventories to 427.3 million barrels.