Oil Prices Up, Chances of Rate Cut Trimmed, Crypto Market Still Flat

• Oil prices crossed $100 a barrel.
• Chances for a rate by the US Federal Reserve are slim.
• The crypto market made little gains in the last 24 hours.

Oil prices have breached a major milestone as the Middle East conflict chokes the global supply. This has brought down the chances of the US Federal Reserve to slash rates as per the expectations of the market. Crypto prices have remained flat even though some of the tokens are appearing to attempt a recovery.

Oil Prices Surge

Oil prices have crossed the mark of $100 against a barrel. This has triggered concerns around inflation, especially for the US, where the recent rate came out steady instead of a drop. Reports hinted at the possibility for the war to end early, but that has not eased oil prices to this moment.

The International Energy Agency has stepped up. It has expressed the intention to release approximately 400 million barrels of oil from its reserves. While the announcement has also failed to put investors at ease, it has ignited a possibility to keep oil prices under control at least for some time.

Investors worry because there is a concern around how quickly the reserve will be delivered. Joel Hancock from Natixis CIB interacted with the media and said that a market balanced through strategic stock releases will be less logistically efficient.

Inflation and Rate Cut

A possibility of higher oil prices has also triggered speculation about the next inflation data. The rate for February 2026 remained steady compared to the previous month. No decline in the rate is attributed to the possible increase in prices by the end of the month.

The Middle East conflict, if it goes on, is expected to cause more upticks in oil prices.

For now, yields on 10-year Treasury have risen by 2 basis points to 4.2257%. The risk of inflation has significantly trimmed the chances of rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. A few market experts are now looking at only a single cut throughout the year, with no specific point mentioned.

Crypto Market

The crypto market fell flat even though some of the top tokens attempted to reverse their earlier losses. BTC, for instance, could just surge to $70,426.49, and ETH to $2,069.66. Their respective jumps are 1.20% and 2.03% over the last 24 hours.

It remains to be seen how the crypto market continues to react to the ongoing geopolitical conflict.

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