New Delhi, July 3 -- the US-Israel war on Iran has no foreseeable end, the Strait of Hormuz will stay partially closed, and the price of energy will keep absorbing that uncertainty. On Thursday, for the first time, markets priced in a different possibility.

Brent crude dropped to $70.82 a barrel in August futures trading as of early Thursday, the lowest price since February 27 - the day before Israel and the United States began military operations against Iran. From its April 30 peak of $126 a barrel, oil has now lost 38 percent of its value. That is not a correction. It is a repricing of the entire conflict's assumed duration.

The catalyst was a communique out of the Doha indirect talks between Washington and Tehran. Qatar, which hoste...