In the closing hours of a turbulent trading week, oil markets chose doubt over fear — pulling back despite the very tensions that might once have sent prices surging. The Trump administration's hard rejection of any Iranian diplomatic revival, paired with presidential reassurances that Russia would not strike a NATO ally, left traders weighing punishment against leverage, and rhetoric against risk. Markets, in their way, rendered a verdict: when geopolitical signals contradict one another, uncertainty itself becomes a ceiling.