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Oil prices dropped back to where they were in the early days of\u00a0the Iran war, and U.S. stocks raced to\u00a0another record\u00a0Friday after\u00a0Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is open\u00a0again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.<\/p>\n
The S&P 500 leaped 1.2% to an all-time high and closed out a third straight week of big gains, its longest streak since Halloween. A freer flow of oil could take pressure off prices not only for gasoline but also\u00a0for groceries and all kinds of other products\u00a0that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately help people pay less on credit-card interest and mortgage bills.<\/p>\n
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged as many as 1,100 points before paring its gain to 868, or 1.8%. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5%.<\/p>\n
The U.S. stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting\u00a0a bottom in late March\u00a0on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy despite\u00a0their war. Friday\u2019s reopening of the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz, which may only be temporary, is the clearest signal yet for optimism, and\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0said late Thursday that the war \u201cshould be ending pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude plunged immediately after Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that passage for all commercial vessels through the strait \u201cis declared completely open\u201d as a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon. He said it would stay open for the remaining period of the ceasefire, and the price for U.S. oil dropped 9.4% to settle at $82.59 per barrel.<\/p>\n
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 9.1% to settle at $90.38 per barrel. To be sure, it remains above its $70 price from before the war, indicating some caution is still embedded in financial markets.<\/p>\n
Several times since the war began,\u00a0optimism\u00a0on Wall Street has\u00a0quickly deteriorated\u00a0into doubt about a possible end to the fighting. That in turn has caused vicious and sudden swings of prices for everything from stocks to bonds to oil.<\/p>\n
Minutes after the Iranian foreign minister\u2019s announcement of the Strait of Hormuz\u2019s reopening, Trump said on his social media network that the\u00a0U.S. Navy\u2019s blockade of Iranian ports\u00a0remains \u201cin full force\u201d until both sides reach a deal on the war. He, though, also suggested that \u201cshould go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated\u201d and emphasized it by using all capital letters.<\/p>\n
Companies with big fuel bills soared to some of Wall Street\u2019s biggest gains following the easing of oil prices.<\/p>\n
United Airlines flew 7.1% higher, and Southwest Airlines climbed 5.1%. A day earlier, the head of the International Energy Agency had said that\u00a0Europe has \u201cmaybe six weeks or so\u201d of remaining jet fuel supplies.<\/p>\n
Operators of cruise ships, which guzzle fuel, also steamed higher. Royal Caribbean Group gained 7.3%, and Carnival rose 7%.<\/p>\n
Housing and auto-related companies likewise got some relief from the drop in oil prices.<\/p>\n
With less threat of high inflation hurting the economy, a sustained drop in oil prices could convince the\u00a0Federal Reserve to resume its cuts to interest rates\u00a0to help the economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.24% from 4.32% late Thursday, and lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses.<\/p>\n
Builders FirstSource, a supplier of windows and other products, rose 5.5%, and homebuilder PulteGroup gained 5% on hopes that\u00a0lower mortgage rates\u00a0will spur more people to buy houses. Carvana climbed 7% because lower loan rates can get more customers into new autos.<\/p>\n
A strong start to the earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has also helped support the U.S. stock market, and more financial companies joined the list delivering bigger profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected.<\/p>\n
State Street rose 2.5%, and Fifth Third Bancorp added 1.7% after both reported better results for the latest quarter than expected.<\/p>\n
They helped offset a 9.7% slide for Netflix, which fell even though it delivered a better profit than expected. It did not raise its forecast for revenue growth for the full year, which analysts said may have disappointed some investors.<\/p>\n
It also said\u00a0Reed Hastings, cofounder and chairman of the streaming company, will\u00a0step down from its board\u00a0of directors in June when his term expires.<\/p>\n
All told, the S&P 500 rose 84.78 points to 7,126.06. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 868.71 to 49,447.43, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 365.78 to 24,468.48.<\/p>\n
In stock markets abroad, stock indexes leaped in Europe following Iran\u2019s announcement about the Strait of Hormuz. France\u2019s CAC 40 jumped 2%, and Germany\u2019s DAX returned 2.3%.<\/p>\n
In Asia, where trading finished for the day before the announcement, indexes were weaker. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 lost 1.8%, and Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng fell 0.9% for two of the bigger losses.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
#Oil #early #war #days #jumps #alltime #high<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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