Oil prices sank and stock markets rallied Wednesday as investors leaned into hopes that the United States and Iran were nearing a deal that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz for crude deliveries. The renewed optimism came as Brent crude dropped and Wall Street posted broad gains, with the move extending to Asia and Europe.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, fell 7.8% to $101.27. The AP said Brent had been above $115 earlier this week, and it initially pared losses after trading briefly below $97 before returning above $100.
President Donald Trump said the Strait of Hormuz could be “OPEN TO ALL” if Iran accepts a reported agreement that he did not detail. The AP said the strait has posed major challenges for the global economy during the Iran war by blocking oil tankers from exiting the Persian Gulf, and reopening it could allow oil to flow more freely and reduce upward pressure on inflation.
On Wall Street, the AP reported the S&P 500 climbed 1.5% to hit another record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 612 points, or 1.2%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2% to its own record.
Markets abroad saw larger percentage gains, with indexes leaping 6.5% in Seoul, 2.9% in Paris and 2.1% in London. In South Korea, the AP said the Kospi moved above the 7,000 level for the first time to a record, helped by strength in AI-related companies including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
The rally was also supported by a stream of stronger-than-expected earnings from large U.S. companies at the start of 2026, the AP said. AMD helped lead the market with a surge of 18.6% after it topped expectations for profit and revenue; CEO Lisa Su told investors the chip company benefited from continued growth driven by artificial intelligence, which she said is demanding large amounts of computing power from data centers. AMD also said revenue growth could accelerate in the current quarter to roughly 46% from a year earlier.
Super Micro Computer rose 24.5% after posting stronger earnings than analysts expected, the AP reported. Nvidia climbed 5.7% and was described by the AP as the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500 because of its size.
Other gainers included CVS Health, which rose 7.6% after reporting better results for the first quarter than analysts expected and raising its financial forecasts for the full year. The Walt Disney Co. gained 7.5% after saying its “Zootopia 2” movie helped draw people to its streaming business, parks and cruise ships, and after delivering a profit that beat expectations. Uber Technologies also rose 8.5% after giving a bookings forecast for the spring that topped what analysts expected.
Outside of earnings, the AP said companies with large fuel bills climbed on hopes that oil prices would keep easing, including United Airlines (+6.8%), Carnival (+6.8%) and Royal Caribbean (+8.8%).
Bond markets also moved as oil prices fell, with the AP reporting Treasury yields sank as lower prices took pressure off inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 4.35% from 4.43% late Tuesday, a move the AP said can help reduce rates for mortgages and other loans and can lift stock prices, though the 10-year yield remained well above its 3.97% level from just before the war.
Investors had reason for caution as well: the AP noted hopes about an end to the Iran war have risen multiple times before only to be dashed, and that scenario could play out again. The AP said Brent had pared some of its steepest losses by Wednesday afternoon after the market latched onto encouraging signals, including Trump’s Tuesday comment that he was pausing his effort to forcefully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial ships, and China’s foreign minister calling for a comprehensive ceasefire after a meeting with Iran’s foreign minister.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.