WTI Crude Tops $104 a Barrel, Up More Than 2.3% on the Day

The round-trip back above $104 matters less for the level itself than for what it signals about how quickly the benchmark surrendered and then reclaimed that ground. Crude's direction feeds directly into inflation expectations, which in turn shape the rate backdrop that crypto and tokenized real-world assets trade against. Whether this push holds or fades on the next session is the open question, and energy's persistence is the variable worth tracking.