Brent Swings Above $107 Before Retreating 0.9% to $103.80
Key Facts
Brent crude topped $107 a barrel on the morning of Tuesday, November 3, 2026, before briefly falling below $101 and then reaching $103.80, down 0.9% in the latest update reported by the Associated Press. The move showed sharp volatility during the session, with the price shifting from above $107 to below $101 before returning to $103.80. The swings put oil at the center of market attention in a session that also saw mixed performance in U.S. stocks. In early trading, the S&P 500 rose, while the Dow Jones fell and the Nasdaq advanced.
At 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, the S&P 500 was up about 0.2%, while the Dow Jones lost 232 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.5%, according to the Associated Press. The three indexes diverged at the start of the session, with gains in the two more closely tied to growth stocks and a decline in the industrial average. Apple and Palantir shares were under pressure even though both companies beat analysts' earnings expectations. Apple fell 3.4%, and Palantir declined 4.2%, the news agency reported. Meanwhile, Palantir's U.S. commercial revenue rose 148% year over year in the latest quarter covered by the report.
The report linked Apple's decline to rising memory-chip costs associated with demand from artificial intelligence data centers. The company said it expects to make less than a dollar in profit for every dollar of revenue during the final three months of the year. The pressure on the stock came despite Apple beating analysts' expectations for earnings and revenue, according to the Associated Press. Palantir shares also fell despite earnings that were better than expected, alongside 148% year-over-year growth in U.S. commercial revenue. The moves in both stocks reflect a mixed response to corporate results, as earnings beats did not prevent their shares from falling during the session.
The backdrop to oil's decline in the previous session was a wave of optimism over the possibility that Iran was ready to negotiate with the United States to end the war, according to Reuters via Investing.com. The report described Monday's drop in crude as the biggest in months, as that hope spread through markets. At Monday's close, November 2, the S&P 500 fell 0.51% to 7,541.40 points, the Nasdaq dropped 1.07%, while the Dow Jones rose 0.41%, according to Reuters via MarketScreener. Over October, the Nasdaq lost 5.3% amid concerns that AI companies' infrastructure spending could exceed their ability to generate cash in the near term. An analyst at Longbow Asset Management said additional spending could reach a point where it adds no value and becomes merely a cost.
On the U.S. election front, the Associated Press noted that the S&P 500 delivered a positive return in the six months following every midterm election since 1970, according to an analyst at Edward Jones. The historical comparison offers context for tracking market performance around elections, while the indexes remained mixed in early Tuesday trading. In the energy sector, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast an average spot Brent price of $105 a barrel in the fourth quarter of 2026, raising its estimate by $14 from the previous month's forecast. The agency attributed the revision to continued restrictions on crude flows from the Middle East during the fourth quarter. It said attacks on the East-West pipeline highlight the potential for volatility to persist as global inventories are drawn down.
In its outlook for 2027, the Energy Information Administration said it expects average Brent to fall to $84 a barrel, with most of the region's production returning to its pre-conflict average by the end of the second quarter. On the data front, the weekly petroleum status report is usually released on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, according to the agency's schedule. The schedule lists the report covering the November holiday week for November 12, 2026, at noon Eastern time, instead of the usual weekly release time. The scheduled release provides a way to track U.S. inventory data for the week in question. Oil prices and stock performance remain subject to developments in coming sessions, as reflected in these data and official forecasts.