July 30, 2025 - (Gold Market Wire) - Professionals are accumulating a long Crude Oil position, within a rising US Dollar environment, indicating a heightened risk premium, as the Trump 10-day deadline for Russian acquiescence to a cease-fire over the Ukraine conflict counts down.

We are receiving indications that Russia has delivered S-400, advanced air defence systems to Iran, along with Russian military personnel capable of operating the systems. Implicit in this is that Iran and Russia intend to actively repel any joint Israeli-US attack on Iran. As this comes at a time of extreme diplomatic pressure building on Israel for the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, the timing has a strong potential for the expected second attack on Iran to take place. Western nations, especially the UK and USA, are also promoting regional destabilization in regions like Azerbaijan, Georgia and Syria, in an attempt to stretch Russia's military coverage across peripheral areas of interest.

Escalation is in the air. Crude and the US Dollar are reflecting that. The (relatively small) sell-off in the Precious Metals arena is unlikely to follow through much further, if an attack on Iran commences. The potential for a significant Iranian response to an Israeli attack is growing.