Oil printed around $108 as traders lost hope for a quick Hormuz arrangement ahead of a Gulf-Iran meeting via Oman. [1] Thursday this paper printed Brent holding above 100. Friday the number moved again.

Optimism was described as low. [1] A meeting is not an MOU. June's collapsed paper remains the last named arrangement. An Oman table is not a corridor. Print 108 and the talks. Do not print a signed strait.

The East-West precaution is the adjoining pipeline page. Perim is the adjoining island page. Neither is a Hormuz close. Do not average them into 108. Leave a later jump to the edition that owns a later close.

Friday's clock stops at 108 and at a table that has not sat. No Salalah delay belongs on this clock.

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco