THE NEW YORK TIMES: Stocks gain for eighth week amid impasse over reopening Strait of Hormuz

Stocks and oil prices rose slightly Friday, with few signs of concrete progress in talks to establish a peace deal between the United States and Iran.

Pakistan and Qatar have dispatched envoys to Iran, officials and diplomats said Friday, as mediators intensified efforts to preserve a monthlong ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.

Nearly three months since the fighting began, disagreements remain over the fate of Iran’s uranium stockpile and reports that Iran and Oman may impose transit fees on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Trump administration has warned against charging ships for passing through the strait, a critical shipping lane for oil and gas.

Under a fragile ceasefire, negotiations over the points of an enduring peace agreement appear far from settled.

Oil prices nudge up

The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, settled Friday at $103.54 a barrel, up about 1% from the day before.

West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, settled at $96.60 a barrel, up slightly for the day.

Stocks gain

The S&P 500 ended the trading day almost 0.4% higher Friday, chalking up its eighth straight week of gains.

Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, posted gains in most major markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 and stocks in Taiwan rose more than 2%. Markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and South Korea were all higher.

In Europe, stocks rallied. The Stoxx 600, a broad-index that tracks the region’s largest companies, gained more than 0.7%.

The bond sell-off subsides

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield moderated somewhat, slipping to 4.56% Friday. That was a small reversal after an extended rise that pushed yields to two-decade highs this week. The 10-year yield was around 4% before the war started.

The run-up in yields has fed through to a wide range of loans, including mortgage rates. This week, the average for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage hit 6.51%, the highest rate since August, casting a chill on the U.S. housing market.

Gasoline prices slip

Gas prices fell by a penny Friday, to a national average of $4.55 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. The increase has raised the cost for drivers by more than 50% since the war began.

Gas prices don’t move in lockstep with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.

The average price of diesel also dropped by a cent to $5.65 on Friday, up 50% since the start of the war.

What they are saying: ‘What happens in Hormuz won’t stay in Hormuz’

Analysts at S&P Global Ratings said they assume the disruptions to traffic in the Strait of Hormuz “will ease in the second half of the year.” Still, the ripple effects will continue to be felt around the world for a long time — or, as they put it, “what happens in Hormuz won’t stay in Hormuz.”

Even after a reopening, “later and lower volumes” of energy supplies traveling through the strait could put upward pressure on oil prices, which the analysts expect to average around $100 per barrel through the end of the year. Damage to oil infrastructure may also limit production beyond 2026, they note, resulting in “more persistent price pressures and deeper economic disruptions.”

Instead of creating “clear winners and losers,” the energy shock has highlighted “varying levels of vulnerability” among the world’s economies, the analysts concluded, with implications for debts, deficits and credit ratings.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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