Commodity
Brent Crude Oil
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, for reading energy costs and inflation pressure.
At a glance
Brent Crude Oil: latest value and prior change
As of 2026-07-30, Brent Crude Oil is 92.20 USD/bbl. It is 1.46 USD/bbl higher than 90.74 USD/bbl on 2026-07-29.
Across 63 available observations from 2026-04-30 to 2026-07-30, the latest value is at the tie-adjusted 52nd percentile.
- Observed on
- Default comparison window
- 2026-04-30–2026-07-30
- Observations · observed cadence
- 63 · Daily
- Data source
- FRED
A high or low percentile does not by itself make the indicator positive, negative, or a buy or sell signal.
Time-series chart
Brent Crude Oil
2026-04-30–2026-07-30
Long-history series are stored as real provider observations. Index, FX, VIX, and ratio charts use historical backfill where providers expose it; Korean investor flow and margin-credit feeds expand as stable historical endpoints become available.
Interpretation guide
Brent crude: what the world's oil benchmark is pricing
Brent, produced in the North Sea, is the reference price for roughly two-thirds of globally traded crude. Korea's Middle East imports (Dubai crude) track Brent closely, putting refiners, chemicals, airlines, shippers — and ultimately the trade balance and CPI — inside its orbit.
How it differs from WTI
Unlike landlocked WTI, seaborne Brent can be delivered anywhere, so it reflects global supply and demand more directly. The spread between the two benchmarks is itself informative.
- A widening Brent-WTI spread often reflects supply disruption or demand strength outside the US.
- Middle East geopolitical risk shows up in Brent first and hardest.
- Brent tracks Korea's import costs better than WTI, making it the right benchmark for Korean inflation work.
Demand-driven or supply-driven?
The same price move means opposite things depending on its cause. A demand-led rally in a recovering economy is risk-friendly; a supply shock is a stagflation impulse.
- Oil rising alongside copper and the SOX suggests demand is doing the work.
- Oil spiking alone on OPEC+ cuts or geopolitics is a supply shock that pressures inflation and rates.
- Oil and the dollar rising together doubly worsen terms of trade for importers like Korea.
Using it in the Korean market
On TapeFlow, pair Brent with USD/KRW, export and import YoY, and inflation gauges to trace the pass-through into Korea. Sector winners and losers are unusually clear-cut.
- Rising oil favors refiners and offshore-plant shipbuilders while squeezing airlines, shippers, and utilities.
- Oil and dollar-won climbing together amplifies consumer-price pressure through import costs.
- Rallies through $100 a barrel have historically triggered demand destruction, so watch growth data closely there.