(Updates with index/price moves and geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)
US equity indexes rose as technology topped sector charts and crude oil slumped following Washington's continuing strikes to degrade Iran's capability to attack commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.3% to 26,199.2, the S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to 7,539.9, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average marched 0.2% higher to 52,442.4 ahead of Thursday's close. Technology and consumer discretionary led the gainers, while consumer staples and energy paced the decliners.
US Central Command overnight hit 90 Iranian military targets, according to its social media post on X, after striking 80 on the previous night following Iran's attacks on three commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for about a fifth of global crude oil flows. On Wednesday, before the second round of strikes on Iran, US Vice President JD Vance said: "If Iran tries to close the strait down, there's going to be a response [from] the American military. That's the deal."
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, spoke with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Oman, as well as Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, the Associated Press reported Thursday, citing Araghchi's Telegram channel. The minister repeated Iran's assertion that the US has violated the interim peace deal, while the US said that Iran broke the deal by firing on commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to the report.
"The question confronting traders is whether Iran is willing to return to large-scale kinetic war with the US and its allies if necessary to strengthen its claim of control over the Strait of Hormuz, something that it has apparently not been granted by way of any diplomatic negotiations so far," Thierry Wizman, global foreign-exchange and rates strategist at Macquarie, said in a note Thursday.
The front-month global benchmark North Sea Brent dropped 2.9% to $75.78 a barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate declined 2.8% to $71.50 a barrel in the final leg of trading.