WTI & Brent sit more than $1 above their........>

OIL: WTI & Brent sit more than $1 above their respective settlement levels,

eying yesterday's highs, with a continued focus on the simmering U.S.-Iran

tensions. As a reminder, Thursday saw the IRGC chief note that they have

"ordered our naval units at sea that if any warships or military units from the

naval force of America's terrorist army wants to jeopardize our commercial

vessels or our combat vessels, they must target those (American) warships or

naval units." This came in the wake of U.S. President Trump's comments, made

Wednesday.

- Also worth noting a potential fiscal boost for U.S. producers after U.S. Tsy

Sec Mnuchin told BBG that "one of the components we're looking at is providing a

lending facility for the industry. We're looking at a lot of different options,

and we have not made any conclusions."

- In terms of structural matters, Brent's July contract now has almost 2x the

open interest of the June contract, ahead of next Thursday's expiry. Elsewhere,

CME group implemented another round of margin hikes across the energy complex,

effective today.