Hope for a possible end to the war with Iran is taking once again on Wall Street Wednesday, and stocks are back to jumping while oil prices ease.
The S&P 500 rose 1.1 per cent in its latest flip – flop after america delivered a plan to pause the war to Iran. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 529 points, or 1.1 per cent, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3 per cent higher.
Canada’s foremost stock index, the Toronto Stock Exchange, was up about 1.5 per cent as of publication.
The worth for a barrel of Brent crude fell 5.4 per cent to US$94.78 on hopes that a cooldown in fighting could allow oil and natural gas to flow more freely from the Persian Gulf to customers around the globe. Many oil tankers are currently stuck outside the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast, and the blockage has sent Brent crude to almost $120 per barrel at times.
However the moves in markets are still tentative, they usually have been quick to swing because the war began greater than three weeks ago with strikes by america and Israel on Iran. Lots of the sudden reversals in momentum have struck hour to hour as uncertainty continues to dominate about how long the war will last.
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Maintaining that uncertainty: Iran didn’t confirm receiving the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire, and it publicly dismissed the diplomatic effort while launching more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries. Iran also continued to return under attack, and the U.S. military is deploying paratroopers and more Marines to the region.
Optimism, though, was nevertheless evident in financial markets worldwide. Stock indexes climbed a couple of per cent from London to Paris to Shanghai. The Nikkei 225 in Japan leaped 2.9 per cent.
Within the bond market, Treasury yields also eased. That might help soften the rise in rates for mortgages and different kinds of borrowing because the start of the war and in turn lessen some pressure on the economy.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.33 per cent from 4.39 per cent late Tuesday, though it stays well above its 3.97 per cent level from just before the war.
Even gold, which has been certainly one of the investment world’s worst losers through the war, rose. It climbed 3.5 per cent to $4,558.10 per ounce.
Its price had briefly gotten around $5,400 early this month. That was before Treasury yields rushed higher on worries that top oil prices would drive inflation upward and stop the Federal Reserve from cutting rates of interest. When bonds are paying more in interest like that, they make gold, which pays its investors nothing, less attractive as compared.
On Wall Street, corporations with big fuel bills rallied because of easing oil prices.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holding climbed 4.2 per cent, and United Airlines gained 4 per cent.
Robinhood Markets leaped 7.1 per cent to assist lead the market after its board authorized a program to send as much as $1.5 billion to shareholders by buying back the corporate’s stock.
– With a file from Global’s Ariel Rabinovitch
© 2026 The Canadian Press