The move is more drastic than it might sound
The big story today is the 3.2% rally in oil prices to the best levels in a month. The buy comes on reports that the US will work to bring exports among allies to zero by November 4.
So what?
It's a bigger deal than it might initially sound like. Under previous sanctions, Iran's customers were given long lead times to slowly stop buying. So long as they cut imports by 20% every six months, they got a reprieve.
Iran exports around 2.4 million barrels per day, predominantly to Europe, China, India and Turkey. What's likely is that Europe and perhaps Turkey is pressured into compliance but China and India hold out, but it's all unclear.
How successful the US will be, and how serious it is (the stories cited unnamed senior State Dept figures) are open questions but if the White House is successful, it will take a great deal of oil out of the market.
As for oil, the climb above $70 clears all the major technical hurdles and puts the spring back into crude's step.
