Dow Edges Up 0.19% as Bond Yields Ease and Hopes Rise for a Phased Hormuz Reopening Deal, Snapping Losing Skid

NEW YORK — The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 99.21 points, or 0.19%, to 51,449.19 in Friday trading, as easing Treasury yields and growing optimism over a potential phased deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz helped stocks snap a three-session losing streak.

Friday's gains followed a difficult stretch for U.S. equities. The Dow fell for a third consecutive session Thursday, dropping 161.61 points, or 0.31%, to close at 51,349.98, as Treasury yields at multidecade highs continued to weigh on the market's more cyclical sectors. The S&P 500 slipped 1.90 points Thursday, or less than 0.1%, to 7,704.13, while the Nasdaq Composite eked out a marginal gain of 3.34 points to 26,939.37, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.09 points, or 0.1%, to 2,835.57.

The 10-year Treasury yield had climbed to 5.16% Thursday, its highest level since the global financial crisis, before easing three basis points to 5.17% early Friday, paring a two-day surge of more than 20 basis points. That earlier climb in yields had been driven in part by comments from New York Federal Reserve President John Williams, who said the central bank would likely need to raise interest rates again before the end of the year, along with weak demand at a recent Treasury debt auction and heavy government borrowing.

Reflecting on the broader bond market turbulence, BlackRock's Rick Rieder offered a measured assessment in comments to Yahoo Finance Thursday, describing the sell-off as significant but not alarming. "Not a crisis but an eye-opener," Rieder said.

Stocks found additional support Friday from developments tied to the Middle East. Reuters reported, citing sources, that U.S. and Iranian negotiators meeting in New York were considering a deal that would bring a phased end to the ongoing conflict, under which Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That report helped pull oil prices lower, with West Texas Intermediate crude falling to around $92 a barrel and global benchmark Brent crude trading near $98 a barrel Friday morning, offering relief to a market that has remained highly sensitive to swings in energy prices amid the monthslong regional crisis.

Futures pointed to a broadly positive session ahead of Friday's open, with contracts tied to the Dow and S&P 500 both up 0.3%, and Nasdaq-100 futures rising 0.6%, as investors weighed the easing bond and oil pressures against a slate of incoming economic data. Friday's economic calendar included the preliminary August reading on durable goods orders, expected to show a 0.3% decline compared with a 1.1% increase the previous month, alongside the Kansas City Fed's September services activity index and the final September reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey, expected to hold steady at 47.8.

Thursday's session had featured a notable divergence between winners and losers within the Dow. Industrial conglomerate 3M surged 3.70% to $148.62 on continued optimism surrounding its restructuring efforts, while Nvidia added 1.77% to $225.00 and Johnson & Johnson rose 1.61% to $227, even as broader concerns about tight financial conditions tied to heavy debt issuance for artificial intelligence infrastructure weighed on several other chipmakers, including Intel, Marvell and Micron, each of which traded down as much as 3% at points during the session. IBM was the Dow's biggest laggard Thursday, falling 2.42% to $213.40, followed by Home Depot, which dropped 2.14% to $303.84. Salesforce declined 1.64%, while American Express and JPMorgan Chase fell 1.27% and 1.12%, respectively, reflecting a broader pullback in cyclical stocks tied to the elevated yield environment.

Meta Platforms stood out as a notable gainer this week, jumping 4% Thursday alone and extending its weekly rally to 16%, driven by positive market reaction to the company's newly unveiled artificial intelligence agent software and hardware products, including a new lightweight virtual reality headset the company introduced earlier this week.

Elsewhere in corporate news, Oracle disclosed it had invoked a force majeure clause in connection with a data center project under development in New Mexico, in a letter sent to the project's developer, a unit of Blue Owl Capital, according to Bloomberg. An Oracle spokesperson quoted in that report said the underlying construction project "remains on our planned schedule," even as the company works to preserve legal flexibility in the event of future delays. Oracle shares fell 4.5% Thursday following the disclosure.

Beyond the immediate market-moving developments, Friday's trading also unfolded against the backdrop of Thursday's high-profile meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with trade and oil among the topics on the two leaders' agenda, and coverage of Trump administration advisers analyzing the potential economic impact of a proposed short-term ban on diesel exports.

With bond yields showing early signs of stabilizing and hopes building for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East crisis that has weighed on oil markets for months, investors are likely to watch closely in the coming sessions for confirmation of whether Friday's rebound can be sustained, or whether the underlying pressures from elevated interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty reassert themselves as the market heads into the final stretch of the third quarter.