Markets ended the week trading like a pressure cooker, finally finding a release valve. The spark was not a single clean data point or a single heroic earnings print. It was a cocktail of softer inflation signals, lower oil prices, fading rate-hike risk, US-Iran peace optimism, and the spectacle of SpaceX blasting into the public markets with the biggest IPO in history. In the old trader language, this was not a pure risk-on day. It was a war premium bleed, a bond-yield sigh of relief, and a growth squeeze, all wrapped around a rocket launch.

The main macro transmission was oil. Once the market started sniffing out a possible interim deal that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, crude stopped trading like an Armageddon hedge and started trading like a crowded insurance policy with the premium getting marked down. US oil settled below $85, while front-month Brent lost roughly $10 on the week toward the high $80s. That matters because oil has been the fuse running under the inflation bunker. When the barrel backs off, bond traders breathe easier, equity traders get more room to chase, and the Fed hike tail gets kicked into next year rather than staring the market in the face.