STORY: Wall Street's main indexes on Wednesday each soared more than 2% to near one-month highs after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire.
The announcement also sent oil prices tumbling below $100 a barrel.
The ceasefire agreement came hours before President Donald Trump's Tuesday night deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
:: Marine Traffic
Iran, which demonstrated its ability to cut off Gulf energy supplies through its grip on the strait, said it would offer safe passage in coordination with its armed forces.
But Iran's coastguards warned on Wednesday that any ship attempting to sail without permission would be, quote, "targeted and destroyed."
Robert Yawger, executive director and commodities specialist at Mizuho Futures Group, said he was "surprised" to see that the Iranians were still largely in control of the strait.
"They are allowed to charge tankers, or shipping, to transit the Strait of Hormuz as the terms, as part of the ceasefire agreement. So they can basically name their price, apparently, for the next two weeks. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE have all said that they expect unrestricted access to the Strait of Hormuz. But apparently that's not going to happen. So we'll see. That has to be negotiated away, I think, in my opinion, for the ceasefire to succeed. So yeah, that's a big deal."
A senior Iranian official involved in the ceasefire talks told Reuters on Wednesday that Iran could open the strait in a limited and controlled way on Thursday or Friday, ahead of a meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials in Pakistan.
As for Wednesday's stock moves, travel-related companies surged, with cruise operator Carnival jumping as much as 15% and Norwegian Cruise Line adding more than 13%.
And airline stocks soared, with Southwest and United both jumping more than 14%. The gains came despite airline officials warning that jet fuel supplies will remain tight and costly for months, even if Iran reopens the strait, due to damage to refining capacity across the Middle East.
:: Chevron
On the flip side, energy was the only S&P 500 sector in the red, with shares of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum all seeing losses.
