What I am Reading Tonight From the Iranian side of the house. Why did Brent crude oil futures suddenly drop from $126, its highest price in the past four years (during the Corona period), to around $114? The recent drop in oil prices had two main and behind-the-scenes reasons: 1. End-of-Month Rollovers: At the end of each month, major oil traders must settle their futures contracts or roll them over to the next month. This capital movement causes severe fluctuations, traders take profits, and as a result, a temporary drop in prices. 2. Japan’s clever intervention and manipulation: The second reason, which is much more interesting, was the direct entry of the Japanese government into the market to save its national currency (the yen). Since Japan is a net importer of energy, expensive oil causes a lot of dollars to leave the country and the value of the yen to fall sharply (which recently reached 160 yen against the dollar). Japan made an unprecedented intervention to prevent this disas...
