Update: Equities Rise Intraday as Oil Prices Fall Following Iran's Proposal

01:44 PM EDT, 09/25/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with latest market prices and developments.) US benchmark equity indexes were higher intraday and oil prices fell as traders evaluated Iran's conditional proposal to Washington to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.8% at 51,741.3 after midday Friday. The Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 rose 0.5% each to 27,081.7 and 7,738.9, respectively. The Dow closed Thursday trading down for the third consecutive session, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were little changed. Among sectors, technology paced the gainers intraday Friday, while energy saw the steepest decline. West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 2.6% at $92.18 a barrel, while Brent was off 2.6% to $103.87. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is willing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key crude and energy chokepoint, in seven days and restart further talks, if the US accepts its conditions, CNBC reported Friday, citing Araghchi's remarks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. On Thursday, Reuters reported that US and Iranian negotiators were discussing a phased path out of their conflict, with Tehran reopening the strait and Washington lifting its economic blockade of Iran. Treasury yields were mixed intraday, with the two-year yield down 0.6 basis point at 4.89%, while the 10-year yield rose 3.6 basis points to 5.2%. President Donald Trump described his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House as "very productive" for both nations. Washington and Beijing have agreed to extend their trade truce by two months to January. Among tech stocks, Microsoft (MSFT) was up 3.8% intraday, the best performer on the Dow. Dell Technologies (DELL) rose 6.7%, the third-biggest gain on the S&P 500. On Semiconductor (ON) and Qualcomm (QCOM) were also notable gainers. Akamai Technologies (AKAM) climbed 4.6% as the company signed up to $20 billion cloud infrastructure deal with Anthropic on Thursday. In economic news, US consumer sentiment in September reached its lowest level in four months as inflation expectations rose, with the year-ahead outlook hitting the highest since June, final results of a University of Michigan survey showed Friday. Spot gold edged up 0.4% to $4,292.33 per troy ounce, while silver gained 1.3% to $64.82 per ounce.