U.S. stocks ended slightly mixed on Thursday after paring deep losses, as diplomatic signals from the Middle East helped calm markets that were previously calm from U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of tougher action against Iran ahead of a long holiday weekend.

Investor sentiment stabilized in the afternoon after Iran’s foreign ministry said it was drawing up a protocol with Oman to manage traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and Britain said dozens of countries were discussing ways to end the crisis, easing concerns about prolonged disruptions to global oil flows.

Stocks opened lower amid rising oil prices after US President Donald Trump signaled a more aggressive attack ahead of the Good Friday holiday, when markets will be closed.

Crude prices for the next month bounced, with US crude up 11% to around $111 a barrel. International benchmark Brent rose nearly 7% to close near $108. But traders pegged its price at around $82 a barrel in October, a sign they expect the disruption to be temporary.

“The (stock) market doesn’t have real conviction either way right now, but October oil prices tell you that the market thinks this crisis will be over by the fall,” said Michael Antonelli, market strategist at Baird.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 rose 7.26 points, or 0.11%, to close at 6,582.58, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 35.92 points, or 0.18%, to 21,876.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61.23 points, or 0.13%, to 46,504.51.

The rebound reflects caution, with investors favoring stock segments that are seen as more resilient to economic stress. Utilities, which offer stable earnings and dividends, rose while consumer discretionary stocks, the worst-performing sector on the day, fell.

Wall Street opened sharply lower on Iran, a sharp reversal from its earlier comments that the US would be “out of Iran very quickly”.

Separately, private equity concerns resurfaced after Blue Owl capped the amount investors could withdraw from two of its retail-focused funds.

On the S&P 500, consumer discretionary stocks were the most heavily weighted, led by Tesla, which fell after its first-quarter delivery numbers.

Further developments will focus on Elon Musk’s SpaceX after it privately files for a US initial public offering on Wednesday, and is expected to target a $1.75 trillion valuation.

Friday’s nonfarm payrolls numbers will be in the spotlight after last week’s weekly jobless claims fell, but US markets will be closed for the long weekend.

Shares of Globalstar jumped after reports that Amazon was in talks to buy the low-Earth-orbit communications satellite company.

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