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Oil prices dropped more than 10% Friday, and U.S. stocks raced toward another record<\/a> after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is open<\/a> again for commercial tankers carrying oil from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 leaped 1.5% as Wall Street rallied to the finish of 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<\/a> that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately help people pay less on credit-card interest or mortgage bills.<\/p>\n The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1,130 points, or 2.3%, as of 12:52 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.7% higher<\/p>\n The U.S. stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting a bottom in late March<\/a> on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy despite their war<\/a>. Friday\u2019s reopening of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, which may only be temporary, is the clearest signal yet for optimism, and President Donald Trump<\/a> said late Thursday that the war \u201cshould be ending pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude plunged immediately after Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that the passage for all commercial vessels through the strait \u201cis declared completely open\u201d as a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon. He said it would stay open for the remaining period of the ceasefire, and U.S. oil tumbled 12.2% to $83.18 per barrel.<\/p>\n Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 10.4% to $89.01 per barrel. To be sure, it remains above its $70 price from before the war, indicating some caution is still embedded in financial markets.<\/p>\n Several times since the war began, optimism<\/a> on Wall Street has quickly swung<\/a> to doubt about a possible end to the fighting. That in turn has caused vicious and sudden swings of prices for everything from stocks to bonds to oil.<\/p>\n Minutes after the Iranian foreign minister\u2019s announcement of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said on his social media network that the U.S. Navy\u2019s blockade of Iranian ports<\/a> remains \u201cin full force\u201d until both sides reach a deal on the war. He, though, also said that \u201cshould go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated\u201d and emphasized it by using all capital letters.<\/p>\n Companies with big fuel bills soared to some of Wall Street\u2019s biggest gains following the easing of oil prices.<\/p>\n United Airlines surged 9.2%. On Thursday, the head of the International Energy Agency had said that Europe has \u201cmaybe six weeks or so\u201d of remaining jet fuel supplies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Operators of cruise ships, which guzzle fuel, also steamed higher. Norwegian Cruise Line jumped 8.1%, and Royal Caribbean Group gained 10.3%.<\/p>\n Housing and auto-related companies also got some relief from the drop in oil prices.<\/p>\n With less threat of high inflation hurting the economy, a sustained drop in oil prices could convince the Federal Reserve to resume its cuts to interest rates<\/a> to invigorate the economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.23% from 4.32% late Thursday, and lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses.<\/p>\n Builders FirstSource, a supplier of windows and other products, rose 7.8%, and homebuilder Lennar gained 6.1% on hopes that lower mortgage rates<\/a> will spur more people to buy houses. Carvana climbed 8.2% because lower loan rates can get more customers into new autos.<\/p>\n 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 of companies delivering bigger profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected.<\/p>\n State Street rose 4.7%, and Fifth Third Bancorp added 3% after both reported better results for the latest quarter than expected.<\/p>\n They helped offset a 9.7% 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.<\/p>\n It also said Reed Hastings<\/a>, cofounder and chairman of the streaming company, will step down from its board<\/a> of directors in June when his term expires.<\/p>\n In stock markets abroad, stock indexes leaped in Europe following Iran\u2019s announcement about the Strait of Hormuz. France\u2019s CAC 40 jumped 2%, and Germany\u2019s DAX returned 2.3%.<\/p>\n In Asia, where trading finished for the day before the announcement, indexes were weaker. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 lost 1.8%, and Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng fell 0.9% for two of the bigger losses.<\/p>\n