HONG KONG, Sept 23 — Oil prices fell today after President Donald Trump said US and Iranian representatives had met for “very good” talks at the United Nations.

The international benchmark, Brent crude, and main US contract, West Texas Intermediate, dipped to US$98.91 (approximately RM403) and US$89.93 per barrel respectively in early Asian trade — well below the symbolic US$100 mark they have smashed repeatedly since the Middle Eat war broke out in February.

The three-hour meeting was “very good”, “very productive” and “they have another one scheduled in the very near future”, Trump told reporters as he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump’s announcement came just hours after he delivered a bellicose address to the UN in which he said he faced a “big decision” on whether to make a deal with Iran or “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly”.

Nearly seven months after US-Israeli strikes on Tehran triggered the conflict, the foes remain at an impasse, with Iran keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and the US persisting with a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.

A parallel conflict between Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen has enveloped the kingdom, squeezing energy exports from the Red Sea.

“The three-hour US-Iran meeting matters because it shifts the market from pure escalation pricing toward a genuine diplomatic process, even if a final deal still looks distant,” said Stephen Innes at Quintex Intel.

Trump has pledged that oil would come down “as soon as” the US wins the war.

The dip in oil prices came as the world’s biggest crude exporter Saudi Arabia reportedly rebooted operations along its East-West Pipeline — a crucial oil export route shut down by the conflict rocking the Middle East.

Riyadh said this month that drones launched from Iraq had forced the closure of the pipeline, which it had increasingly used to bypass the lockdown of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran.

The kingdom is aiming to resume exports later this week, Bloomberg quoted a source as saying.

But while Saudi oil giant Aramco reportedly told Asian refiners they could soon pick up crude from the Red Sea port of Yanbu, the firm told their European counterparts will not be allocated oil in October, Bloomberg said.

AI buzz 

Asian markets were mixed, with Taiwan’s Taiex index — home to chipmaking titan TSMC — up 0.8 per cent following a renewed burst of confidence in artificial intelligence.

Anthropic and OpenAI released new, cheaper AI models within hours of each other yesterday, days after the heads of both companies called for a slowdown in the development of the powerful technology.

Anthropic’s release comes a few weeks before its expected stock market debut. OpenAI has delayed its IPO plans until next year.

Facebook owner Meta kicked off the AI buzz at the start of the week, surging 11 per cent after its free AI agent Muse — which can book travel, send emails and make purchases — topped download charts.

Traders are also looking to Washington ahead of a summit tomorrow between Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping that is expected to focus on trade between the world’s two biggest economies.

A simmering US-China trade war is a key concern, as both sides have maintained a tariff truce for nearly a year but have yet to secure a lasting agreement.

“But the higher impact issue will be the war in the Middle East and any support the US can extract from China to use its leverage to sway the Iranians,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.

“Another high-powered issue will be artificial intelligence and the arms race evolving between the two economic and strategic competitors, following recent warnings from US tech leaders that the technology poses existential risks without stronger guardrails.” — AFP