Brian Sullivan had conversations. The conversations revealed that Gulf nations don't want to pay a toll to use the Strait of Hormuz. This counts as news because someone wrote it down.
The Strait of Hormuz moves about 21 million barrels of oil per day. Someone floated the idea of charging countries a fee for safe passage through a waterway that Iran has threatened to close roughly twice per fiscal quarter since 1979. The Gulf nations heard this proposal and said no. Stunning development. Really cracked the case on that one.
Retail traders will immediately panic-buy oil futures because a headline contained the words "Strait of Hormuz" and "toll" in the same sentence. They will not read past the headline. They will not ask who proposed this toll or why anyone thought sovereign nations would agree to pay protection money like a bodega owner in a Martin Scorsese film. They will simply market-buy at 9:31 AM and wonder why they're down 40% by lunch.
The technical analysis remains unchanged. Price goes up or down. Volume exists. The 200-day moving average continues to move in a way that can be described with words. None of this has anything to do with whether Oman wants to Venmo someone for the right to export liquefied natural gas.
Sullivan's conversations matter exactly as much as every other conversation that begins with "sources say" and ends with "are unlikely to agree." Which is to say they matter in the same way your horoscope matters. You read it. You nodded. You forgot it before your next meal.
The Strait remains open. The toll remains imaginary. Your portfolio remains f*cked for reasons completely unrelated to either.
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