Airline and cruise stocks rise on U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal
For airlines and travelers, the stakes were high. The strait channels about a fifth of the world’s oil. Its effective closure raised the prospect of tighter jet fuel supplies, grounded or reduced routes and rising prices across the board. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi announced this via X $TWTR that passage for all commercial shipping through the strait was “completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire.”
The S&P 500 rose 1.5%, the Dow rose more than 1,100 points and the Nasdaq The $NDAQ gained 1.6%. Brent crude oil fell 10% to less than $90 a barrel and WTI futures fell 12% to $83.
The market rally showed investors feeling more positive as diplomacy progressed. Earlier in the week, Trump spoke at an event in Las Vegas and said the Iran conflict “should end very soon” and was “going wonderfully.” He also said Tehran “really wants to make a deal.”
The Strait of Hormuz has been at the center of an energy supply crisis since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28. This conflict has left more than 5,000 dead, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. Iran effectively shut down commercial traffic on the waterway during much of the conflict. The supply disruption sent oil prices above $100 a barrel at their peak and pushed the national average gas price to $4.15 a gallon. A monthly increase of 0.9% in the consumer price index in March followed. Gasoline recorded its largest monthly gain since the series began in 1967. Consumer confidence fell to a record low of 47.6 in April. One-year inflation expectations reached 4.8%.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire earlier this week. Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun would receive invitations from the White House for what he described as the most substantive bilateral engagement between the two countries since 1983, according to CNBC. The US State Department said the two sides sought to create conditions for lasting peace, including mutual recognition of sovereignty.
Over the past three weeks, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are experiencing unprecedented gains since 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal. THE NasdaqThe weekly gain alone exceeded 5%.
