Morning Highlights: Bloomberg and Two Trading Firms Reportedly Buy Faster Access to Trump’s Truth Social Posts; Iran Calls Qatar’s Draft Deal Unacceptable; Senators Warn US Banks and Ports Off Russian

Thursday, October 29, 2026 | 6:45 AM ET

Brent (December) $113.92 | WTI (December) $101.38

Brent -$1.40 (-1.1%), WTI -$1.40 (-1.5%), paring Wednesday’s gains. The Wall Street Journal reported that Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Iran’s Mohsen Rezaei to revive peace talks, and Qatari mediators presented Iran with a new draft deal. A senior Iranian official dismissed the draft as unacceptable ideas that did not amount to an offer. EIA data showed crude stocks fell 1.9 million barrels while gasoline rose 3.9 million.

Bottom Line

The diplomacy is busy, but the Iranian responses haven’t moved. Vance’s letter to Rezaei, per US officials and people familiar with it, adds a direct US channel to the Qatari and Mecca Pact tracks. The senior Iranian official said the Qatari draft was unacceptable ideas and not an offer. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran is still giving diplomacy a chance and that its seven-day plan could be completed in under a week if adopted, which is the same offer Iran has been making. UBS’s Giovanni Staunovo tied the decline to the renewed diplomatic effort. The limits on the drop are the Houthi attacks and the market’s fear that the US may strike Iran after the November 3 midterms.

On the ground, nothing has eased. The Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed a ballistic missile fired toward the kingdom’s eastern region early Thursday, the same region as Ras Tanura. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed the Houthi claim from Tuesday of a missile hit on the refinery there. Yemeni government forces said the Houthis attacked Aden airport on Wednesday. The IRGC said three tankers struck mines on an unauthorized route south of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, with explosions and fires. That is an IRGC claim, without vessel names, and similar claims were made on October 11, 12 and 22. UKMTO has not confirmed it.

Russian diesel is now a legal question as well as a supply one. A bipartisan group of senators, with Representative Gregory Meeks, wrote to the CEOs of major US banks, including Goldman Sachs, and to the port authorities of Houston, Corpus Christi, Beaumont and New York/New Jersey. They warned that importing Russian diesel could violate federal law and carry civil and criminal liability. They asked recipients to preserve records back to September 1 and to confirm by October 28 that they had done so. They cite the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act of 2022 and Section 216 of CAATSA, and argue the Treasury’s six-month General License 135 doesn’t override them. The White House called the effort politically motivated, and the letters don’t establish that any company committed a crime. Representative Jamie Raskin separately warned fuel-industry associations of penalties of up to 20 years. Akin’s Michael Wain said the license substantially reduces US sanctions risk for foreign firms, though UK and EU rules still apply. CNAS’s Rachel Ziemba said she expects most cargoes to go outside the US, with some resold elsewhere in the Americas. Neither expects banks to be unmoved. The lawmakers say ships could reach Beaumont and New York/New Jersey as early as the end of October, while LSEG data on the first cargo has it due November 7.

Whether Russia can supply the volume depends on its refineries. JPMorgan said there have been no further confirmed attacks on Russian refining since the October 15 strike on Ryazan, and runs rebounded 350,000 bpd last week to 4 million bpd. Industry sources put Russian diesel output at about 175,000 tons a day in September and 160,000 tons a day in the first half of October, recovering toward 180,000 tons a day after new export quotas. Trump has said Russia could supply an additional 3 million tons depending on the condition of its refineries. Ukraine’s pause is what lets that recover, and Ziemba noted a meaningful increase in supply would likely require an energy ceasefire, which Russia is wary of.

Reuters reported that Truth Social has signed Bloomberg, Susquehanna International Group and Jump Trading to its paid API, which delivers Trump’s posts faster than the app, for up to $100,000 a month, per people with direct knowledge. Susquehanna and Jump are high-frequency trading firms. Trump Media officials describe the timing edge as about 50 milliseconds. Reuters says the deals likely mark the first time a business tied to a sitting president has sold access to his statements, and describes the pay-for-access plan as untested legal territory. Bloomberg, Jump and Susquehanna declined to comment, and Reuters said it has no current plans to subscribe. Trump Media said the reporting is based on “misleading information being peddled by anonymous sources” and that the API is an industry-standard product with significant demand, and a spokesperson said critics fail to grasp the distinction between public and nonpublic information. The president’s family trust owns 41% of Trump Media. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff asked the SEC in July to investigate whether the service violates securities laws, and the SEC declined to comment. A lawsuit filed in August by Intercept Media and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, still ongoing, alleges the paid feed violates the First and Fifth Amendments and seeks to block the White House from posting official announcements only on Truth Social while it exists.