Oil Prices Sink and Stocks Rally Worldwide on Hopes for Reopening of Strait of Hormuz

Oil prices are sinking Wednesday, and stock markets are bursting higher worldwide with hopes that the United States and Iran are nearing a deal to allow ships to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf once again to their customers.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, sank 7.6 percent to $101.56, down from more than $115 early this week.

 It dropped as President Donald Trump said the Strait of Hormuz could be “OPEN TO ALL” if Iran accepts a reported agreement that the US president did not detail.

The small strait has caused big trouble for the global economy because the war with Iran has blocked oil tankers from using it to exit the Persian Gulf. A reopening could allow oil to flow freely again and remove upward pressure on inflation that’s driven prices up for all kinds of products worldwide.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 1.2 percent and was heading for another record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 575 points, or 1.2 percent, as of 2:14 pm Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.7 percent higher.

Stock markets abroad had even bigger gains, and indexes jumped 6.5 percentin Seoul, 2.1 percent in London and 2.9 percent in Paris. Of course, hopes have risen several times already on Wall Street about a possible end to the war with Iran, only to get dashed each time.

That could happen again, and oil prices pared some of their steepest losses from Wednesday morning. The price for a barrel of Brent briefly dove below $97 before returning above $100 after Trump threatened to start bombing “at a much higher level and intensity” if Iran does not accept the agreement.

But Wall Street nevertheless latched onto potentially encouraging signals. Trump said Tuesday he was pausing his effort to forcefully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial ships. And China’s foreign minister called for a comprehensive ceasefire following a meeting with Iran’s foreign minister.

That could be influential because of how closely tied Iran is to China economically and politically. Plus, in the meantime, big US companies continue to turn in much stronger profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected. That’s helping to support the stock market despite all the uncertainties about the war.

AMD helped lead the market with a surge of 17.6% after it joined the list of big-name companies topping expectations for both profit and revenue. CEO Lisa Su said the chip company benefited from continued growth from artificial-intelligence technology, which is demanding tremendous amounts of computing power from data centers.

AMD also said its revenue growth could accelerate in the current quarter to roughly 46 percent from a year earlier.

Another company enmeshed in the AI industry, Super Micro Computer, rallied 18% after likewise delivering stronger earnings than analysts expected. Nvidia, the chip company that became the poster child of the AI boom, rose 4.7 percent and was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500 because of its immense size.

CVS Health climbed 7.1 percent after delivering better results for the first quarter than analysts expected and raising its financial forecasts for the full year. The Walt Disney Co gained 7 percent after saying its “Zootopia 2” movie helped draw people to its streaming business, parks and cruise ships and delivering a better-than-expected profit.