Oil prices softened Friday as U.S.-Iran peace talks continued, pulling Brent crude down 0.2% to $76.18 a barrel and WTI 0.1% to $72.02. The dollar nudged lower while Nasdaq futures slipped, with European tech stocks retreating ahead of SK Hynix's New York debut. Despite the pullback, oil remains on track for a roughly 5% weekly gain.

The South Korean memory-chip giant priced its U.S. listing at $26.5 billion, marking one of the largest foreign floats in years and a fresh gauge of appetite for artificial-intelligence-linked hardware. Shares traded just 0.3% lower in Seoul — a muted move for a typically volatile name — suggesting investors are digesting the offering cautiously.

Asian equity markets rallied broadly on reduced geopolitical risk. The Kospi surged 2.5% and the Nikkei added 1.2%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.7%. Japanese government bond yields fell after Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Tokyo would steer pension funds toward domestic assets, reversing recent yield spikes.

The Strait of Hormuz stays quiet, with no large commodity vessels transiting, signaling traders view current tensions as a ceasefire test rather than a rupture. For investors, the SK Hynix float offers a real-time stress test of AI-sector valuations while oil's resilience above $70 keeps energy inflation a live variable for central banks.