Oil prices moved higher on Thursday, following a massive 15% fall in the previous session, as investors remained unsure that supplies from the Middle East may fully recover. Concerns persist over whether the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran will hold, while restrictions around the Strait of Hormuz continue to cloud the outlook.

The strategic waterway links oil exports from major Gulf producers such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar to global markets and typically handles around 20% of global supply. However, uncertainty around the ceasefire remains high. Israel continued strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday, prompting Iran to call it “unreasonable” to move ahead with negotiations for a lasting peace agreement.

Crude oil price on April 9

Brent crude rose $2.6, or 2.74%, to $97.35 a barrel at 0048 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained $3.02, or 3.2%, to $97.43 a barrel. Both benchmarks had slipped below the $100 mark in the previous session. WTI posted its sharpest fall since April 2020, driven by hopes that the ceasefire involving the U.S. and Israel against Iran would lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.Meanwhile, risks to regional oil infrastructure continue. Iran reportedly targeted sites in neighboring countries even after the ceasefire, including a pipeline in Saudi Arabia that serves as an alternative to the Strait. Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE also reported missile and drone attacks.

The durability of the ceasefire hangs in limbo, particularly due to Israel’s actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Ongoing attacks on energy facilities and conflicting signals surrounding the Strait of Hormuz continue to add to market uncertainty.

What are experts saying?

Experts say oil markets may be transitioning into a structurally higher price regime. In a base case scenario that assumes de-escalation of the Iran war, global brokerage Macquarie expects prices to remain elevated, with Brent finding support in the $85–$90 range and gradually inching back towards $110 as flows through the Strait of Hormuz normalise only slowly.Experts say if ongoing tensions persist, the outlook for crude oil remains volatile and tilted upward. Continued conflict in the Middle East, especially disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, would keep supply chains constrained, pushing Brent and WTI prices higher and sustaining inflationary pressures worldwide.

“Even with a peace deal, Iran may be emboldened to threaten the Strait of Hormuz more frequently in the future, and the market will price in heightened risk to the Strait of Hormuz going forward,” MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic, told Reuters.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

A year into his tenure and despite what his feckless critics claim, President Donald Trump’s Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson is delivering monumental wins for competition and consumers.

I’ve known Ferguson for years. He’s a friend, a former colleague and exactly the kind of fighter President Trump promised to put in charge of the administrative state. And unlike the typical Washington bureaucrat, Ferguson isn’t interested in academic exercises, he’s interested in results. In just one year, he’s returned $3.2 billion to consumers, more than during the entire Biden administration.

Ferguson is delivering on President Trump’s agenda: lowering costs for American families, restoring competition, bringing back merit-based hiring, and taking on the entrenched monopolies that rigged our economy for decades.

For too long, trillion-dollar corporations – especially in Big Tech – have used their market power to crush competition, shutter small businesses and silence conservatives. Republicans are used to talking about this problem. Ferguson is actually doing something about it. 

Under his leadership, the FTC opened inquiries into whether platforms like Meta engage in practices such as “shadow banning” or viewpoint-based restrictions that may violate consumer protection and competition laws. At the same time, he has directly pressed dominant gatekeepers, including Google and Apple, warning that search bias and curated products like Apple News could expose them to liability if they mislead users about neutrality while exercising editorial control. 

His tenure has also included major consumer protection actions, including the FTC’s $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon. And he’s put companies across the sector on notice that complying with foreign censorship regimes or quietly suppressing lawful speech may run afoul of the FTC Act. This administration is sending a clear message to Silicon Valley: the era of consequence-free empire building is over. This is what real antitrust law enforcement looks like.

Under Ferguson’s leadership, the FTC is driving down costs across critical sectors of the economy. In healthcare, he’s acting aggressively to protect patients from anticompetitive behavior that drives up prices. The FTC secured a landmark settlement to lower drug costs for American patients, blocked anticompetitive medical device mergers, and launched a healthcare task force to root out consolidation that hurts consumers.

This is what President Trump promised: lower prices, more competition and better outcomes for American families.

Ferguson is also going after illegal no-hire agreements that suppress wages and trap workers. He’s stopping mergers that would raise prices on everyday goods, from construction materials to medical devices. And he’s taking on housing-related collusion, including cases against companies like Zillow and Redfin for allegedly suppressing competition in rental advertising.

The FTC is putting a stop to unfair and anticompetitive bias against conservatives and conservative media, addressing antitrust concerns against advertisers to prevent collusion or coordination based on political or ideological viewpoints. And after decades of racist DEI and affirmative action policies pushed on the American people, the FTC is doing its part to aggressively scrutinize these practices, especially in hiring, using the agency’s antitrust and competition law authorities. In a step toward restoring sanity, the FTC also launched an inquiry into how Americans may have been exposed to fake and scientifically unsupported claims about so-called “gender-affirming care,” especially as it relates to children. 

These are key promises of President Trump’s 2024 campaign that his FTC is fulfilling. 

Ferguson understands that he works for the president of the United States – and through him, for the American people. He understands that the FTC is not an unaccountable independent agency, and it isn’t supposed to be a passive observer while markets get rigged. It’s meant to be an active enforcer of the law under the direction of the president.

We’re seeing historic enforcement actions, record-setting cases and a sustained streak of victories against anticompetitive conduct. Whether it’s halting major mergers, securing record settlements that deliver real relief to consumers or pushing forward in blockbuster litigation against Big Tech, this FTC is getting results at a level we haven’t seen in years.

If conservatives dismantle Big Government only to hand power over to giant monopolies, we haven’t solved the problem; we’ve just changed who’s in charge. Concentrated power without competition, whether in government or in the market, hurts the American people. President Trump’s FTC is making sure we don’t replace one form of unaccountable power with another.

Under President Trump and Ferguson, we’re finally moving in the right direction. Critics from a bygone era of a Republican Party led by the Chamber of Commerce’s big-business-first, America-last faction will complain, as they always do. They’ll say this administration’s approach is too aggressive, too disruptive, too political. What they really mean is they don’t like being held accountable.

Too bad.

The American people deserve better. They deserve lower prices, more choices, and a level playing field for America’s entrepreneurs and small businesses. President Trump and Ferguson are delivering. He’s Trump’s all-star antitrust enforcer, bringing the fight to Big Tech, drug middlemen and corporate cartels. And he’s producing real, measurable wins for consumers and for the country.

That’s what leadership looks like. That’s what results look like. And that’s why Ferguson is one of the most effective leaders in President Trump’s administration today.

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Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the RGP conference call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to remind everyone that management will be commenting on results for the third quarter ended February 28, 2026. They will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. An explanation and reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the press release issued today. Today’s press release can be viewed in the Investor Relations section of RGP’s website and filed today with the SEC.

Also, during this call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding plans, initiatives and strategies and the anticipated financial performance of the company. Such statements are predictions and actual events or results may differ materially. Please see the Risk Factors section in RGP’s report on Form 10-K for the year ended May 31, 2025, for a discussion of risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company’s business, results of operations and financial condition to differ materially from what is expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made during this call.

I’ll now turn the call over to RGP’s CEO, Roger Carlile.

Roger Carlile
President, CEO & Director

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to the RGP Fiscal Year 2026 Q3 Earnings Call. I have just completed my fifth month as Chief Executive Officer of RGP, and my optimism