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Canadian and U.S. stock markets shot higher in early afternoon trading while the price of oil plunged more than 10 per cent after Iran’s foreign minister said the Strait of Hormuz is fully open.
U.S. President Donald Trump initially celebrated, posting on social media that Iran announced the strait “is fully open and ready for full passage” but minutes later, he issued another post saying the U.S. blockade of Iranian ships and ports would continue until its deal with Iran is complete.
“I do think that the market and the administration want to get this over with as soon as possible. I’m just not sure that relates to the Iranians, so we’ll see,” said Ryan Bushell, CEO and portfolio manager at Newhaven Asset Management.
“Even if this is completely over, the strait’s completely open, there’s still a lot of logistical toing and froing that has to happen to get the right boats in place and restart the production, which has been down for a month.”
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 318.92 points at 34,371.15.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 1,064.88 points at 49,643.60. The S&P 500 index was up 94.34 points at 7,135.80, while the Nasdaq composite was up 377.59 points at 24,480.30.
Bushell said he wasn’t surprised to see the knee-jerk reaction from the market following the developments in the Middle East, but that he will be watching where the price of oil goes from here.
“I don’t see a lot of downside from US$83 given the backdrop we see right now,” he said.
Bushell said there don’t appear to be any shortages in the oil market, provided “everything’s working properly,” which he said is not currently happening.
Beyond the Strait of Hormuz, he said, Russian oil export infrastructure has been attacked by Ukraine over the past few weeks, and the view that Venezuela will start pumping significantly more oil may be optimistic.
“The physical market is tighter than the financial market is giving it credit for, but we’ll just have to see how that plays out as we head into the highest demand portion of the year, which is the summer driving season in the Northern Hemisphere,” Bushell said.
The June crude oil contract was down US$9.77 at US$81.40 per barrel.
Amid the wild swings in markets that are reacting to the latest developments in the Middle East, Bushell said he recommends staying the course.
“All we can try to do for our clients is stay the course with the investments we have. They’ve performed well year to date during a lot of the turbulence, and we think they’ll continue to,” he said.
The June gold contract was up US$85.30 at US$4,893.60 an ounce.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.15 cents US compared with 72.94 cents US on Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press
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