Wall Street closed out Thursday’s session with a rebound after an early stumble tied to higher oil prices, finishing with modest gains and marking the first winning week for major indexes since the start of the Iran war. The recovery came as crude prices pushed higher following a late Wednesday national address by President Donald Trump, in which he vowed the U.S. would continue to attack Iran and did not lay out a clear timetable for ending the conflict, according to the report.
The S&P 500 rose 7.37 points, or 0.1%, to 6,582.69. The benchmark also notched a 3.4% gain for the week, its first weekly increase since the conflict began, the report said. Markets were set to close for Good Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61.07 points, or 0.1%, to 46,504.67, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 38.23 points, or 0.2%, to 21,879.18. Both indexes recorded weekly gains, the report said.
Oil became the day’s central driver for markets, with a barrel of U.S. crude rising 11.3% to $111.54, after trading close to $114 at one point. Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel. The report said shipping traffic had been severely curtailed in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes during peacetime.
Crude prices had been sliding back toward $100 per barrel before Trump’s address on Wednesday, but the report said the earlier slide proved fragile because oil is priced in a global market and disruptions can ripple broadly. While the U.S. relies on the Persian Gulf for only a fraction of the oil it imports, the report said any interruption can lift prices everywhere.
Stocks have been broadly moving in the war’s rhythm, with indexes often rising and falling sharply alongside statements from Trump about the direction of the fighting. Just on Monday, the report said the S&P 500 briefly neared a 10% drop from its record—a move investors commonly describe as a “correction”—before gaining ground Tuesday and Wednesday on hopes that the war could end soon.
In a note to investors, Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, warned that for markets “a prolonged conflict increases the risk of sustained pressures on inflation, global growth, interest rates, and equity valuations.” The report said Wall Street’s concern was that higher energy prices add to inflation that has already remained above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
The report cited consumer-impact channels as fuel prices rise, saying gasoline prices in the U.S. had surged 36% from a month earlier to an average of $4.08 per gallon, according to AAA. It also said higher fuel costs can raise prices indirectly across other goods and services, including travel, as airlines and shipping providers pass through higher expenses.
On Thursday, the report said airlines and other travel-related companies were among the biggest decliners, with United Airlines down 3% and Carnival down 3.5%. Tesla fell 5.4% after a report showing sales over the past three months fell short of analysts’ expectations, while several technology stocks gained ground, including Intel up 4.9% and Advanced Micro Devices up 3.5%.
In the bond market, Treasury yields remained relatively steady, the report said, with the 10-year Treasury yield falling to 4.30% from 4.32%. Traders, the report added, came into 2026 forecasting several cuts to the Federal Reserve’s benchmark rate, but they were expecting the rate to remain steady this year as the inflation outlook proved tougher to move.
The report also described a shift in oil futures pricing linked to supply constraints: it said Brent crude futures typically trade above U.S. futures, but the war had flipped that pattern. It attributed the inversion to timing, noting that the sooner a buyer needs oil, the more they’ll pay, and that U.S. crude was trading for more than Brent in part because the most actively traded U.S. contract was for May delivery while the Brent contract was for June delivery.
Tom Kloza, chief energy adviser at Gulf Oil, told how immediate demand carries a premium, saying a buyer who needs oil immediately would pay about $3 to $5 a barrel above the futures price for U.S. crude and an even steeper premium for Brent.