• WTI trades back above $85 after a small retreat earlier this week. 
• Oil traders remain bullish amid reports of a potential Iranian retaliation against Israel or US assets in the Middle East.
• The US Dollar Index sprinted to 105.00 on a hot US inflation report ahead of the ECB meeting.

Oil prices are stretching higher on Thursday and could further jump with geopolitical tensions spiraling out of control and ahead of the key monthly report from OPEC. On the geopolitical side, CNN reported that US intelligence expects a flare up in attacks from Iran on Israeli or US assets in the Middle East in response to the Israeli attacks in Damascus. The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, meanwhile, are targeting vessels again in the Gulf of Aden and are attacking a US destroyer, Reuters reported. 

The US Dollar is returning to the Iron Throne after a long hiatus this year. The Greenback made its way back above 105.00 after the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March came in higher than what economists broadly expected. A red-hot inflation print fully erases any possibility of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) cutting before the summer, and even the number of rate cuts for overall 2024 appears to be put into question. All elements seem to play in favor of the US Dollar ahead of the European Central Bank meeting later on Thursday. 

Crude Oil (WTI) trades at $85.94 and Brent Crude at $90.33 at the time of writing.