US stocks rallied Friday to close out a volatile week, with the Dow jumping…

US stocks rallied Friday to close out a volatile week, with the Dow jumping 478.64 points (0.93%) to 51,828.62, the S&P 500 gaining 0.51% to 7,743.41, and the Nasdaq adding 0.5% to 27,068.72. The gains came as optimism grew that the Strait of Hormuz, the vital oil shipping chokepoint at the center of Middle East tensions, could reopen, after Iran reportedly asked the US to return to a June memorandum of understanding that had earlier failed to end the conflict. That eased both oil prices and Treasury yields, which had hit multi-decade highs the day before. The Trump-Xi summit continued in Washington. For the week, the Dow snapped a three-week losing streak to end up 0.3%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.2% and the Nasdaq gained 2%, led by technology stocks (+3.1%) amid excitement over Meta's Muse AI agent. Akamai rose 3% after disclosing an expanded $11.6 billion, seven-year cloud computing deal with AI company Anthropic, while Zscaler tumbled 9% on news of management changes.

The PSEi snapped a six-session losing streak Friday, climbing 1.67% (95.95 points) to close at 5,825.97, as investors picked up beaten-down shares following the week's steep selloff. The Philippine peso similarly rebounded, gaining 27 centavos to close at ₱62.465 per US dollar, snapping two days of losses. The relief came after a rough week in which the PSEi had fallen as much as 5.5% from its September 11 close, driven by weaker Philippine growth forecasts, S&P Global Ratings cut its 2026 GDP forecast to 2.9% from 4.1%, and the Asian Development Bank lowered its own projection to 3.3% from 3.8%, alongside surging US Treasury yields and elevated global oil prices tied to the Middle East conflict.

Friday's rally on Wall Street and Manila both trace back to the same story: growing hope that the Strait of Hormuz, the oil chokepoint at the heart of the Middle East conflict, could reopen after Iran asked the US to revive a stalled June ceasefire framework. That eased both oil prices and the US Treasury yields that had been climbing all week, giving the Philippines relief on two fronts at once, cheaper imported fuel and less pressure on local borrowing costs, which helped snap both the PSEi's six-session losing streak and the peso's slide. Property, financials, and mining and oil, the sectors hit hardest by the week's selloff, are the ones with the most room to recover if the diplomatic thaw holds. The uncertainty ahead: this is still just hope for a deal, not a signed agreement, and Trump's own comments this week suggested a full resolution may not come before November's US midterms, so this relief could prove temporary.