The Dow Jones Industrial Average trades near 54,500 on Wednesday, 0.76% higher and at a fresh record, roughly 1,400 points above the high it set in early July.
The bid rests on the Strait of Hormuz reopening within days, after Washington called off a fresh round of strikes and pointed at talks
The draft terms of that reopening, reported during the same session, would route inbound traffic through Iranian waters and attach a fee to cargo that has never paid one. A reopening with a price attached The negotiation runs between Tehran and Muscat rather than Tehran and Washington, and the text on the table sets up a temporary 60-day arrangement in which ships entering the Gulf transit a northern lane inside Iranian territorial waters while outbound traffic runs south through Omani waters, coordinated with Iran. Tehran is seeking a transit fee of 5% to 7% of cargo value.
Muscat has floated something nearer 3%, and Washington wants no fee at all. Before the war the Strait was open to all shipping at no charge, so the reopening now being bought as relief would convert the most important chokepoint on the map into a metered one, run by the party that shut it. Regional officials pushed back in wire reporting on the claim that agreement is close, saying the definition of control and the fee mechanism are both open.