Staff writersUpdated May 22, 2026 — 10:45am,first published May 22, 2026 — 5:16amThe Australian sharemarket edged higher on Friday after a choppy night globally thanks to hour-to-hour swings for oil prices on the back of developments in the Middle East.The S&P/ASX 200 finished the day up 35.3 points, or 0.4 per cent, adding to Thursday’s 1.5 per cent surge to finish the week in the green. Just four of the bourse’s 11 industry sectors ended the day in negative territory.Bond market pressure on Wall Street is continuing to ease.APFood chain Guzman y Gomez surged 9.6 per cent after announcing it has shut down its Chicago stores and that it had pulled the plug on its ambitions to conquer the American market after years of spending tens of millions of dollars and defending it as a long-term investment.Founder Steve Marks said that despite efforts to turn around the chain’s US expansion, the Australian-born Mexican burrito seller was not hitting sales targets enough to justify the investment.“Having spent the last three months in the US, I realised this was going to take significantly more time and capital than we had expected,” Marks said in a statement to the ASX.“In assessing the trajectory of the current network, the board and I have concluded that the business is unlikely to deliver the performance that would justify continued investment of shareholder capital.”Mining stocks were mixed. BHP was up 1.1 per cent and Rio Tinto added 1.7 per cent but Fortescue shed 1 per cent in early trade. Gold miners advanced as the price of the safe haven moved in a narrow range as conflicting signals on the progress of US-Iran ceasefire talks continued to keep traders guessing over whether central banks might need to keep interest rates higher for longer to combat inflation. Newmont added 0.8 per cent and Evolution Mining rose 3.1 per cent.Financial shares are in the green. Commonwealth Bank led the big four higher with a 0.9 per cent gain while Westpac added 0.7 per cent. National Australia Bank and ANZ Bank both gained 0.5 per cent.Energy stocks slid as oil prices had a seesawing session after three days of declines, as statements by Iran on uranium and the Strait of Hormuz hosed down earlier optimism over progress in negotiations with the US.West Texas Intermediate climbed toward $US98 ($137) a barrel, while Brent crude closed above $US102. Iran said the latest proposal from the US partly bridged the gap between the warring sides, but comments from the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader about keeping Tehran’s uranium stockpile and a dispute over tolls in the Strait of Hormuz clouded the outlook for a breakthrough. Woodside Energy gained 0.8 per cent and Santos rose 1.2 per cent.Technology stocks are mixed. WiseTech slipped 1.4 per cent and Xero fell 0.9 per cent but NEXTDC was 2.4 per cent higher and Technology One gained 1.2 per cent.The Australian dollar was trading at US71.3¢ at 4.45pm AEST.Overnight, the S&P 500 had risen 0.2 per cent and inched closer to its record high set last week. The Dow Jones added 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 per cent higher.As oil prices eased, so did pressure on Wall Street that had been building from the bond market.Yields had climbed so high that they were threatening to slow economies worldwide and undercut prices for stocks, bitcoin and all kinds of other investments.The yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly got near 4.63 per cent in the morning before falling back to 4.55 per cent following the movement in oil prices.Some of the biggest beneficiaries of lower yields can be the smallest companies, many of which need to borrow money to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest US stocks rallied 1.2 per cent, far more than the rest of the market.Stocks of companies with big fuel bills also rose because of the easing of oil prices. Southwest Airlines climbed 2.7 per cent, and American Airlines flew 4.9 per cent higher.Ralph Lauren jumped 13.8 per cent after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.They helped offset a 1.8 per cent drop for Nvidia. The chip company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while also forecasting revenue for the current quarter that cleared analysts’ estimates. But such performances and such talk have become routine, and Nvidia’s stock swivelled between losses and gains before falling.Walmart also fell, 7.3 per cent, following its profit report. The retailer delivered another quarter of impressive revenue but offered up weaker forecasts for upcoming profit than analysts expected.A preliminary report on US business activity suggested companies are also feeling the bite of higher inflation.A flash survey from S&P Global said growth in activity for US services businesses unexpectedly slowed a tad, though growth was better than forecast for US manufacturers.“The damaging economic impact from the war in the Middle East is becoming increasingly evident in the business surveys,” said S&P Global Market Intelligence chief business economist Chris Williamson.A separate report, meanwhile, gave the latest signal that the US job market remains in better shape than economists expected. The number of US workers applying for unemployment benefits last week unexpectedly declined in an indication of fewer layoffs.Indexes were mixed in Europe.From our partners