Report: CFTC staff told to retract oil-trading referral

Bloomberg reported on 13 October 2026 that analysts at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission had sent an enforcement referral on suspicious trading placed minutes before President Donald Trump's 23 March announcement that he was reversing threatened strikes on Iranian energy facilities, and that Mel Gunewardena, a senior markets adviser to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, ordered staff to retract it. Anadolu, summarising the report, said contracts equivalent to at least 6 million barrels of Brent and WTI crude were sold in about two minutes, more than 8.5 times normal volume, alongside more than $2 billion in S&P 500 futures. A CFTC official said a broader international review was needed and that enforcement was still examining the trades. No one had been charged.