Goldman Sachs, in an apparently contradictory move, raised its oil price forecast for the end of 2026 by 6 dollars to 60 dollars for Brent and 56 dollars for WTI. The bank cited an unexpected decline in OECD inventories as the reason for the upgrade, but emphasized that the outlook for excess supply next year remains intact. However, Goldman warned about downside risks from the potential removal of sanctions on Iran and Russia, which could reduce prices by 5 to 8 dollars. In its 2027 outlook, the bank projected an average Brent price of 65 dollars.

Based on rumors and reports from Axios, talks between the United States and Iran are expected to take place on Friday, with Iran set to submit its nuclear proposal. These discussions are occurring as Trump has set a 10 to 15 day deadline to reach an agreement, and his military deployments in the Middle East have been completed.

Christopher Waller, a member of the Federal Reserve, addressed two conflicting signals in the US economy: strong economic growth and rising productivity on one hand, and an almost complete halt in new job creation on the other. He noted that zero employment growth in some periods is not sustainable and said that forecasting the labor market outlook depends heavily on February data. Waller described artificial intelligence as playing a key role in future labor market changes and said predicting which jobs will disappear is easier than predicting new ones. He also identified energy shortages as the biggest obstacle to AI development in the United States..

Goldman Sachs economists, referring to the Supreme Court’s cancellation of the IEEPA tariffs, expect the inflationary effects of tariffs to decline. According to the bank’s estimate, tariffs imposed since April have added 0.7 percent to core inflation, PCE, but the pace of transmission has slowed. Goldman Sachs emphasized that only another 0.1 percent will be added to underlying inflation from this point, describing the final impact on consumer prices as minor.