Oil rose sharply after Trump's words on helping protesters in Iran

Oil prices jumped after US President Donald Trump addressed protesters in Iran, in which he urged them not to give up and said that "help is on the way," CNBC reported . Brent futures rose 2.6 percent to $65.5 a barrel. Exchange contracts for North American WTI added 2.8% and passed the mark of $61 per barrel. At the moment, both grades rose in price by more than 3%.

Amid Trump's tougher rhetoric, algorithmic traders took a bullish stance on oil for the first time since September, according to data from Bridgeton Research Group cited by Bloomberg. According to them, trading advisers who use computer models to bet on price movements held long positions of about 18% of the maximum possible volume in Brent futures on Tuesday, Jan. 13. This is the sharpest one-day shift since October 10, the agency wrote.

On Monday, the Brent options market recorded its most active trading session ever, and the premium for bullish bets reached its highest since last June, when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, Bloomberg notes.

Iran is among the key oil producers in OPEC. According to Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov, exports from this country account for 2% of global supplies.

Iran has been gripped for weeks by mass protests that have erupted amid a currency crisis and worsening economic situation. Some 2,000 people have been killed in that time - by protesters and government officials, Reuters wrote, citing an unnamed Iranian official. CBS, citing a source in the country, reported at least 12,000 dead. Bloomberg called the protests the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic's regime since the 1979 revolution that toppled the ruling dynasty.

Trump, addressing the protesters, also said he had canceled all meetings with Iranian officials. According to Axios, the president's special envoy Steven Whitkoff met secretly over the weekend with Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran and Iranian opposition leader. It was the first high-level contact between the U.S. administration and opposition forces since the mass demonstrations began, the portal said.

In an interview with Fox News last week, Trump said the U.S. would hit Iran "very hard" if the country continued to shoot at protesters. According to a White House official contacted by Bloomberg, the U.S. president was briefed over the weekend on a range of options for striking Iran, including non-military infrastructure. The official confirmed that the president is seriously considering an attack.

Asked by reporters on Tuesday about what kind of U.S. aid the U.S. would provide to protesters in Iran, Trump said: "You'll have to find that out. I'm sorry."

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor