Wall Street Snaps Its Losing Streak as Cooling Oil Prices and Big Tech Lead a Friday Rebound
By NewsPulse Staff | September 26, 2026
A cooldown in oil prices gave Wall Street some much-needed relief on Friday, helping U.S. stocks close out their first winning week in three and pulling the S&P 500 back to within striking distance of its all-time high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 478 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite each climbed 0.5%. For the week, the Nasdaq gained 2.1%, the S&P 500 rose 1.2%, and the Dow finished 0.3% higher — ending a three-week losing streak for the blue-chip index.
Oil's yo-yo week
Energy prices have been the market's biggest source of volatility. Brent crude dropped 2.8% on Friday to about $97 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 2% to roughly $93, after reports that the United States and Iran had discussed a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers.
The strait is one of the world's most critical energy chokepoints, and prices have been swinging between roughly $90 and $100 as hopes for a deal rise and fall. When prospects for an agreement improve, prices drop; when doubts resurface, they climb again. For consumers, the stakes are direct: higher oil prices mean higher fuel costs, which raise shipping expenses and eventually show up in the price of everyday goods.
Tech leads, AI deals keep flowing
Technology shares led Friday's advance. Microsoft closed up nearly 4%, while Meta Platforms fell about 3.5% — giving back some of the previous day's gains after the company unveiled new AI products at its Connect developer conference.
The week's biggest AI infrastructure news came from Akamai Technologies, whose shares jumped 3% after it announced that Anthropic had committed to paying it at least $11.6 billion over seven years for cloud infrastructure and software, with the potential for a $9 billion expansion. The deal underscores how the AI boom continues to generate enormous spending on the computing backbone behind it.
Elsewhere in markets, gold futures rose more than 1% to top $4,300 an ounce — a sign that some investors are still hedging against uncertainty — while bitcoin traded near $85,000.
The week ahead
Despite Friday's relief rally, the underlying tensions have not gone away. Treasury yields remain near multi-decade highs, inflation expectations are climbing, and the path of the war involving Iran — and with it, the future of oil flows through Hormuz — is unresolved.
Investors will be watching next week's inflation data closely, along with any fresh signals on trade following the U.S.-China summit. After a volatile month, markets are heading into the final stretch of the year with both momentum and plenty of unanswered questions.
Reading the rally
Market veterans advise caution about reading too much into a single strong week. The S&P 500's rebound to within 0.7% of its all-time high is impressive, but the index has made several similar runs this year only to be knocked back by the same combination of rising yields and geopolitical shocks.
What is different this time is the breadth of the advance. Friday's gains were not confined to a handful of mega-cap stocks — the Dow's 478-point jump showed strength across industrials and financials too, suggesting investors are betting on the broader economy rather than just the AI trade.
Still, with the 10-year yield above 5% and mortgage rates over 7%, the cost of that optimism is rising every day. Whether stocks can hold their gains will depend less on Friday's feel-good session and more on whether inflation data next week gives the Federal Reserve room to breathe.