Canadian, US stocks rally and oil falls around 9% after Iran says Strait of Hormuz is open

oil color prices dropped indorse to where they were in the betimes years of the persia war and U.S. Stocks raced to another record Friday, after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is open again for commercial tankers carrying oil from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The S&P 500 leaped 1.2 per cent 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 would take pressure off prices not only for gasoline but also for groceries and all kinds of other products that get moved by vehicles.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged as many as 1,100 points before paring its gain to 868, or 1.8 per cent. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5 per cent.

The Canadian S&P/TSX composite index closed up 294.06 points at 34,346.29.

U.S. Stock market has jumped more than 12 per cent since hitting a bottom in late March on hopes that the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy despite the war.

The apparent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which may only be temporary, is the clearest yet signal for optimism, and U.S. President Donald Trump said in a speech late Thursday that the war "should be ending pretty soon."

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. Crude dropped sharply immediately after Iran's foreign affairs minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on social media platform X that the passage for all commercial vessels through the strait "is declared completely open" as a 10-day ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon. He said it would stay open for the remaining period of the ceasefire.

U.S. Oil tumbled 9.4 per cent to settle at $82.59 US per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 9.1 per cent to $90.38 per barrel.

To be sure, it remains above its $70 level from before the war, indicating some caution is still embedded in financial markets.

Several times since the war began, optimism on Wall Street has quickly swung to doubt about a possible end to the fighting. That in turn has caused sudden swings of prices for everything from stocks to bonds to oil.

And while markets have reacted positively to today's news, questions about movement in the Strait remain.

"This is clearly positive news and should bring some relief for oil prices and eventually also for consumers," Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING, told Reuters.

But even if Iran says the Strait is open, Brzeski questioned whether vessels will dare to pass. "Insurers and shipowners might still be hesitant to send through vessels, which means that even if in theory open, traffic through the Strait will only very gradually pick up," he said.

Companies with big fuel bills soared to some of Wall Street's biggest gains following the easing of oil prices.

United Airlines soared 7.1 per cent, for example. On Thursday, the head of the International Energy Agency had said that Europe has "maybe six weeks or so" of remaining jet fuel supplies.

Operators of cruise ships, which guzzle fuel, also steamed higher. Royal Caribbean Group gained 7.3 per cent, while Carnival rose seven per cent.

A strong start to the earnings reporting season for big U.S. Companies has also helped to support the U.S. Stock market, and several more financial companies joined the list on Friday of companies delivering bigger profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected.

State Street rose 2.5 per cent, and Fifth Third Bancorp added 1.7 per cent after both reported better results than expected for the latest quarter.

They helped offset a 9.7 per cent drop for Netflix, which fell even though it likewise 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.

In stock markets abroad, stock indexes leaped in Europe following Iran's announcement about the Strait of Hormuz. France's CAC 40 jumped 2.2 per cent, and Germany's DAX returned 2.3 per cent.

In Asia, where trading finished for the day before the announcement, indexes were weaker. Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 1.8 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.9 per cent for two of the bigger losses.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased sharply as falling oil prices took pressure off inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 4.24 per cent from 4.32 per cent late Thursday.

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