Commodities Wrap 22 September: Gas Jumps and Metals Rise as Trump Talks an Iran Deal After the Midterms
Crude barely moved on Tuesday while the rest of the board did. Brent traded 69 cents lower at 99.65 dollars a barrel at 1:52 pm New York time and West Texas Intermediate 27 cents lower at 95.51, per the network’s report for the session, which had not carried the day’s official settlements at our read, after President Donald Trump told the United Nations he believes Iran will make a deal after the November midterm elections and as the report carried the first signs of the Saudi East West pipeline coming back. Natural gas jumped 4.76 percent to lead everything we track, all five metals rose, and at our 18:46 GMT post settlement capture Brent traded at 99.45 dollars a barrel while the feed carried WTI’s expiring October contract at 95.21, on its last trading day per the exchange’s expiration calendar.
Deal talk at the podium and a pipeline pumping again
The oil story ran through New York in both senses. Trump told the U.N. General Assembly he has a “big decision” to make on whether to seek a negotiated deal with Iran or “annihilate the Islamic Republic”, and said “I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election because it doesn’t make sense for them not to”, adding that “They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don’t realize is that I’m not running.” He said the U.S. military has recently escorted more than a billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, with more oil flowing through the strait under U.S. military protection than at any previous point of the war. The network’s markets blog added that oil moved lower after Trump said U.S. officials had a “very good meeting” with Iran’s delegation that lasted about three hours. On the supply side, the report carried signs that the Middle East crunch could ease this week: Saudi Arabia is in the early stages of restarting its East West pipeline, per people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg News as carried by the network, with Riyadh aiming to restore meaningful flows by Saturday, while sources told Reuters, as carried, that the line was already pumping at a low rate and could resume exports at the Red Sea port of Yanbu later Tuesday. The Saudis closed the pipeline after it sustained damage in a drone attack launched from Iraq on 10 September. And the barrels keep loading: Ras Tanura had its busiest loading day since before the war started on 28 February, per the maritime data firm Kpler as carried, with six supertankers loading nearly 12 million barrels at Ras Tanura and Juaymah on Monday. The report’s own frame for the week: prices are down more than 3 percent this week and still up more than 10 percent on the month.
Gas leads the board as the metals rise together
The day’s biggest move sat in the gas market, not crude: natural gas rose 4.76 percent to 2.971 dollars a million Btu, the largest move on our board in either direction, with heating oil up 1.10 percent and gasoline 0.87 percent while both crude benchmarks slipped. The metals rose together, the board’s only unanimous table: platinum led at 2.04 percent higher at 1,838.10 dollars an ounce, with copper up 1.63 percent, silver 1.49 percent, gold 0.14 percent at 4,390.20 dollars an ounce and palladium 0.08 percent. Agriculture leaned the other way: cocoa rose 1.27 percent while coffee fell 1.68 percent, the deepest agricultural decline, with wheat down 1.44 percent, corn 1.24 percent and cotton 0.66 percent. In the fourth table the Cboe Volatility Index fell 4.37 percent to 14.22 with the United States cash session open at our capture and the Nasdaq Composite at a fresh intraday record during the session, per the network, while bitcoin sat effectively flat and the dollar index firmed 0.17 percent.
Energy
| Contract | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Natural Gas, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a million Btu | $2.971 | +4.76% |
| ULSD Heating Oil, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a gallon | $4.9431 | +1.10% |
| RBOB Gasoline, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a gallon | $3.50 | +0.87% |
| WTI Crude, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars a barrel | $95.21 | -0.60% |
| Brent Crude, ICE (Nov’26), dollars a barrel | $99.45 | -0.89% |
Levels captured after the settlement window at 18:46 GMT on Tuesday 22 September 2026, ranked by change, measured against Monday’s settlements as carried in the price feed; post settlement snapshots, not the official settlements. Contract months as displayed at capture; the WTI row is the October 2026 contract on its last trading day, 22 September per the exchange’s expiration calendar, and the November contract takes the front month at our next capture.
Metals
| Contract | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Platinum, NYMEX (Oct’26), dollars an ounce | $1,838.10 | +2.04% |
| Copper, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars a pound | $6.8725 | +1.63% |
| Silver, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $67.405 | +1.49% |
| Gold, COMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $4,390.20 | +0.14% |
| Palladium, NYMEX (Dec’26), dollars an ounce | $1,317.50 | +0.08% |
Levels captured after the settlement window at 18:46 GMT on Tuesday 22 September 2026, ranked by change, measured against Monday’s settlements as carried in the price feed; post settlement snapshots, not the official settlements. Contract months as displayed at capture.
Agriculture
| Contract | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Cocoa, ICE (Dec’26), dollars a metric ton | 5,419.00 | +1.27% |
| Cotton, ICE (Dec’26), cents a pound | 82.87 | -0.66% |
| Corn, CBOT (Dec’26), cents a bushel | 536.25 | -1.24% |
| Wheat, CBOT (Dec’26), cents a bushel | 716.25 | -1.44% |
| Coffee, ICE (Dec’26), cents a pound | 271.75 | -1.68% |
Levels captured after the settlement window at 18:46 GMT on Tuesday 22 September 2026, ranked by change, measured against Monday’s settlements as carried in the price feed; post settlement snapshots, not the official settlements. Contract months as displayed at capture. Sugar (Oct’26, 17.59 cents a pound, up 0.63 percent) and soybeans (Nov’26, 1,325.00 cents a bushel, down 0.23 percent) are omitted as the board’s smallest absolute movers.
Rates, currencies, volatility and crypto
| Instrument | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 100.597 | +0.17% |
| Dollar/Yen | 157.47 | +0.07% |
| Euro/Dollar | 1.1441 | -0.18% |
| Sterling/Dollar | 1.3335 | -0.21% |
| Ether, dollars | 2,750.86 | -0.48% |
| Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) | 14.22 | -4.37% |
Intraday quotes from the same 18:46 GMT capture on Tuesday 22 September 2026, ranked by change, measured against Monday’s reference levels as carried in the price feed; snapshot levels of continuously traded instruments, not settlements, captured with the United States cash session open, so the VIX row is an intraday level rather than a closing print. Bitcoin (86,477.60 dollars, down 0.0028 percent) is omitted as the board’s smallest absolute mover.
Why it matters: the war premium keeps leaking out through words and flows, on our reading: a deal after the midterms line from the U.N. podium and a “very good meeting” with Iran’s delegation arrived alongside a pipeline pumping again at a low rate and the busiest Ras Tanura loading day since before the war, per the figures the report carried, and the crude board barely moved while the volatility index fell 4.37 percent, which reads as a tape taking the diplomacy seriously, on our reading. Across everything we published today, the day’s best index is Abu Dhabi’s FTSE ADX General at 1.25 percent higher and the worst Kuwait’s All Share at 1.03 percent lower, on our count.
Outlook: our United States wrap follows tonight with the full New York session, carrying this board’s 4 commodity rows on tonight’s basis. Riyadh’s exchange is shut Wednesday for Saudi National Day and Tokyo’s is shut until Thursday, when the Bank of Japan’s new rates take effect, with the Trump and Xi summit later this week in Washington still sitting over every board. For this board the near test is physical, on our reading: whether the East West line’s exports resume at Yanbu and whether Riyadh restores meaningful flows by Saturday, per the timelines the report carried.
Sources: CNBC, CME Group, The Edge.
