Prices at the pump in Canada are expected to rise again as U.S.-Iran stalemate shows few signs of breaking

The terms of Brent rough oil colour briefly surged past times $126 US a drum overnight — the highest since March 2022 — before coming back down, as stalled U.S.-Iran talks raised doubts over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a permanent end to the Mideast war.

Brent crude to be delivered in June then slid to about $114 US per barrel. Before the war began in late February, Brent crude was trading around $70 US per barrel.

At the same time, the price of gasoline is continuing to tick higher. In Canada, the average price for a litre of gas was $1.814 on Thursday morning according to GasBuddy — up 2.9 cents compared to yesterday, and up 46.4 cents compared to a year prior. Prices were highest in B.C., averaging just over $2 a litre.

And those costs are projected to go up. In the Greater Toronto Area, prices at the pump are expected to rise to $1.899 per litre, according to a gas price prediction site, while Halifax could see $1.897 a litre prices and Edmonton could see $1.859 a litre.

There's no clear path to an end to the war, which has seen Iran throttle the Strait of Hormuz while the U.S. Blockades Iranian ports — pushing oil prices higher. Reports on Thursday suggesting a possible escalation by U.S. President Donald Trump doused hopes for a quick end to the conflict.

"The breakdown of talks between the U.S. And Iran, along with President Trump reportedly rejecting Iran's proposal for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, has the market losing hope for any quick resumption in oil flows," ING Bank strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a research note.

Traders are always buying and selling contracts for different kinds of oil, going out for many months. In the most actively traded part of the market for Brent crude, the international standard, the price got as high as $114.70 overnight for a barrel of Brent to be delivered in July. It then regressed to $109.80, down 0.6 per cent, which is still high.

So far during the war, the peak price for the most actively traded Brent contract is $119.50, which was set last month.

That easing, along with the continuing flood of better-than-expected profit reports from U.S. Companies, helped to keep Wall Street stable near its records.

In North America, stock markets glided higher early Thursday following more strong profit reports from big companies like Alphabet. The S&P 500 rose 0.1 per cent and is a bit below its all-time high set earlier this week. The Dow rose 0.8 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3 per cent lower.

Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, O'Reilly Automotive and Royal Caribbean all rallied more than 6 per cent after delivering profits for the latest quarter that topped analysts' expectations.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices gave up their big overnight gains.

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 In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed.

Britain's FTSE 100 climbed 1.3 per cent after the Bank of England kept its main interest rate on hold at 3.75 per cent as policymakers assess the economic impact of the Iran war.

Germany's DAX returned 0.7 per cent, and France's CAC 40 slipped 0.2 per cent after the European Central Bank also held its own interest rates steady.

Asian stocks mostly fell. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.3 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite index closed 0.1 per cent higher.

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