US STOCKS-Wall St pares losses as investors anticipate reopening of Strait of Hormuz
By Purvi Agarwal and Twesha Dikshit
April 2 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes pared declines and were muted on Thursday, in the last session of a holiday-truncated week, as investors assessed latest indications that energy shipping through the crucial Strait of Hormuz could be restored.
Iran was drafting a protocol with Oman for traffic through the Strait, its foreign ministry said. Britain also said that about 40 countries are discussing joint action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to stop Iran from holding "the global economy hostage".
"It looks like the UK may be leading an effort to open the Strait of Hormuz, which would be great for traders," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.
"Not only does it benefit all people on the Arabian Peninsula, but Iran needs to get its products to market too. That probably is softening today's sell off."
Wall Street's indexes had opened sharply lower on Thursday after President Donald Trump signaled more aggressive attacks on Iran, in a sharp reversal from his earlier comments that the U.S. will be "out of Iran pretty quickly".
Oil prices pared some gains, but the elevated prices pressured airlines. United Airlines UAL.O, Delta Airlines DAL.O and American Airlines AAL.O lost between 1% and 3%.
The S&P 500 energy index .SPNY added 0.4%.
Separately, private credit jitters resurfaced after Blue Owl OWL.N capped the amount investors can withdraw from two of its retail-focused funds, sending its shares down marginally.
Other asset managers, including Apollo Global APO.N, Blackstone BX.N and Ares Management ARES.N, also inched lower.
At 11:13 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 12.26 points, or 0.03%, to 46,553.48, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 5.81 points, or 0.09%, to 6,581.11 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 17.21 points, or 0.08%, to 21,858.15.
Friday's nonfarm payroll numbers will be in the spotlight after weekly jobless claims fell last week, but U.S. markets will remain closed for the Good Friday holiday.
Investor will also focus on developments around Elon Musk's SpaceX, which confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering on Wednesday, and is expected to target a $1.75 trillion valuation.
Globalstar's shares GSAT.O jumped 9.5% after a report said Amazon is in talks to buy the low-earth-orbit communication satellites company.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.09-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.03-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 8 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 41 new highs and 109 new lows.
