Finance

Crude oil prices stabilized and ticked slightly lower following key geopolitical updates and a new bilateral agreement. President Trump announced a deal with Russia to secure additional diesel supplies and stated there were no plans for immediate military actions against Iran before the upcoming midterm elections. These developments provided a measure of relief to energy markets, bringing international benchmark Brent crude down to around $104 per barrel.

Fixed-income yields moderated somewhat after touching historic 24-year peaks earlier in the week. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield settled around 5.24% on Friday, down from its Wednesday high of nearly 5.37%. Investors continue to monitor these multi-decade high yields, which have risen significantly due to elevated Federal Reserve rate expectations and persistent economic data.

Technology stocks staged a recovery as anxieties over artificial intelligence revenue expectations began to settle. The sector had suffered a steep downturn on Thursday after reports indicated OpenAI's annualized revenue was roughly $20 billion lower than previously estimated. Despite lingering caution that led an Nvidia-backed cloud firm to cancel its planned initial public offering in Australia, broader tech shares rebounded on Friday to support the wider market rally.