When diplomacy pauses, markets speak in its place. The postponement of Oman-mediated talks between Iran and the Gulf Arab states over the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway carrying a fifth of the world's daily oil — sent crude prices to $108 a barrel on Sunday, as traders translated geopolitical silence into financial risk. In the absence of a new date or explanation, the market did what markets do in uncertainty: it priced in the possibility of something worse.