WTI crude settled at $109.85 per barrel on April 28, 2026, down $2.58 from Friday's close. Brent crude settled at $114.22 per barrel, down $2.16. The pullback marked the second consecutive session of declines as traders rotated out of crude into safer assets ahead of the FOMC meeting scheduled for the following week.
Despite the two-session retreat, both benchmarks remained substantially above pre-conflict levels. Year-over-year, WTI was up 64% and Brent up 71%, with the structural premium tied to the ongoing Persian Gulf supply disruption that had been in effect since late February.
AAA's daily fuel gauge reported the U.S. retail gasoline average at $4.489 per gallon. The four cheapest pump markets remained Mississippi ($3.94), Louisiana ($3.97), Texas ($4.00), and Tennessee ($4.02). California led the high end at $6.11. The number of states with averages above $5 per gallon stood at five, unchanged from the prior week.
Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, as tracked by Kpler, remained at roughly 5% of pre-conflict baseline. The IEA's monthly Oil Market Report released earlier in April confirmed crude and fuel flows through Hormuz fell by around 4 million barrels per day in March and April, with global inventory draws running at a record pace.
Refined product markets were showing emerging stress. Distillate inventories had risen 0.4M barrels in the most recent EIA print, the first weekly build since early March. RBOB gasoline futures had pulled back in sympathy with crude but remained at elevated absolute levels.
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