Rita NazarethUpdated June 12, 2026 — 6:44am,first published 5:15amWall Street powered a rally in stocks as oil sank after President Donald Trump signalled the US is close to a deal with Iran, fuelling hopes for an end to the war that has roiled global markets.Equities halted a two-day slide, with the S&P 500 climbing 1.8 per cent. In late hours, US oil sank to around $US86, easing concerns about inflationary pressures and driving bond yields lower. A nearly 8 per cent surge in a gauge of chipmakers added to optimism. SpaceX raised $US75 billion ($106.4 billion), making history with the biggest-ever IPO.Wall Street soared as soon as Trump made his announcement.APThe Australian sharemarket is set to jump, with futures at 6.26am AEST pointing to a rise of 148 points, or 1.7 per cent, at the open. The ASX lost 0.2 per cent on Thursday. The Australian dollar was trading at US70.46¢.Trump pulled back threatened military strikes against Iran, citing “discussions” that “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership” for a negotiated end to the war. He later said a signing could take place as soon as this weekend in Europe with Vice President JD Vance.“We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran, and we’re going to be subject to finalisation of documents, we should get done over the next few days,” Trump noted.Wall Street stocks leaped immediately after Trump said on his social media network that “discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved” and that the time and place of a signing will “be announced shortly.”A deal to end the war with Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to carry crude again from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. Hopes that the global flow of oil can get going again sent the price for a barrel of benchmark US crude down 4.4 per cent to $US86.09. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 4.6 per cent to $US88.80 per barrel, though it’s still above its roughly $US70 price from before the war.High oil prices caused by the Iran war have sent inflation painfully upward, and a report on Thursday showed that prices at the US wholesale level increased by more in May than economists expected. The effect is worldwide, and the European Central Bank on Thursday became the first major central bank to raise interest rates in response.Worries had been high because the United States and Iran launched attacks over the past several days threatening a more than month-long tenuous ceasefire.SpaceX priced the biggest-ever US initial public offering at $US135 per share, making Elon Musk’s rocket and spacecraft manufacturer one of the world’s most valuable companies.The IPO raised a record $US75 billion ($106.4 billion) on the sale of 555.56 million shares, valuing the space, satellite and AI provider at $US1.77 trillion, a record for an initial offering. SpaceX will rank seventh among US-listed firms when its shares begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, though it lost money last year and other mega-caps outpace its revenue by several magnitudes. Thursday’s pricing culminates a months-long effort that realised Musk’s most ambitious project yet even as he stood a handful of financial traditions on their head, and as some analysts question whether its lofty valuation is justified.With the pricing, SpaceX shares will open for trading on Friday valued more highly than firms as varied as JPMorgan Chase , Berkshire Hathaway and Eli Lilly, as well as tech giants such as Meta Platforms and Musk’s own Tesla.Big swings for AI stocks have been yanking the US stock market in their wake over the last week, and they were a bigger factor for Wall Street than the war with Iran as they went from roaring to records to suddenly turning lower. The big concern is whether such stocks shot too high, too fast because of AI mania, and their careening moves have sometimes reversed direction hour by hour.AI stocks had already been rolling back up their roller coaster early Thursday, before Trump made his announcement on Iran.Marvell Technology climbed 11.1 per cent. It’s coming off a manic stretch where it plunged 16.7 per cent, soared 9.6 per cent and then fell more than 5 per cent for two straight days. Just before that, it had a one-day surge of 32.5 per cent that was its best in history when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang suggested it could be “the next trillion-dollar company.” It was worth a bit more than $US190 billion ($271 billion) at the time.Companies involved in the making of chips, meanwhile, jumped to some of the market’s biggest gains. Lam Research jumped 12.7 per cent, and KLA climbed 12.9 per cent.That helped offset a drop of 9 per cent for Oracle. It reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but it also said it expects to raise $US40 billion in cash this fiscal year through borrowing and sales of its stock. That comes after it raised $us48 billion last fiscal year to help pay for AI investments.Other companies’ stocks have also been punished recently for announcing heavy spending on AI, as the question remains whether all the investment can produce the profits and productivity that AI proponents are promising.In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.48 per cent from 4.55 per cent late Wednesday as falling oil prices meant less upward pressure on inflation.A sustained drop in oil prices could allow the Federal Reserve to keep its main interest rate on hold this year, instead of hiking it as many traders suspected it may have to because of high inflation and a solid US job market. Following Trump’s announcement, traders ratcheted back their bets for a possible increase to the federal funds rate this year, according to data from CME Group.Stocks of smaller companies can feel the biggest benefit from easier interest rates because many need to borrow cash to grow, and the Russell 2000 index of the smallest US stocks jumped a market-leading 3 per cent.In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia.London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7 per cent for two of the world’s bigger moves.Bloomberg, APThe Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.From our partners