Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk.
Equities pushed higher Friday as diplomatic signals out of the Middle East lifted sentiment across the board. The S&P five hundred gained half a percent, the Dow added seven tenths, and the Nasdaq one hundred climbed nearly two thirds of a percent, with traders betting a near-term interim agreement between Washington and Tehran could ease regional tensions.
That optimism extended into energy markets, where the Strait of Hormuz story remains live and contested. Energy Secretary Chris Wright claimed nearly seven million barrels of oil are now exiting the Persian Gulf daily with U.S. military assistance, but Chevron's chief executive Mike Wirth pushed back, saying actual volumes moving through the chokepoint remain meaningfully lower than that, though clearly trending upward.
And in the technology space, Anthropic confirmed it will disable access to its two flagship models, Fable five and Mythos five, for all foreign users following a Trump administration export control order. The company said the directive bars any foreign entity or individual from accessing the models, and that the net effect leaves it no operational choice but to cut access immediately, a significant policy reversal with real commercial consequences.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
