The week that ended Friday delivered the cleanest set of signals investors have seen since the Iran-Israel war began, with a softer-than-expected April jobs report, Brent crude near $88 a barrel and a final wave of first-quarter earnings combining to push the S&P 500 to within 0.2 percent of its February all-time high.

The benchmark closed Friday at 5,729, up 1.4 percent for the week and now 8.6 percent above its April 14 wartime low. The Nasdaq Composite, lifted by semiconductors and a renewed bid in megacap technology, gained 2.1 percent over the five sessions and finished at a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.1 percent on the week and the Russell 2000 outperformed at 2.4 percent, a rotation that strategists said reflected growing confidence in a softer-landing scenario for the U.S. economy in the second half.

Brent crude settled at $88.05 in London on Friday, down $1.35 on the day and roughly $5 on the week. West Texas Intermediate finished at $83.70. Both contracts have shed nearly 30 percent of their value from the late-March panic peak above $125, and the front-month spread to the second-month contract has flipped from a steep backwardation in April to a flat curve, a structure traders said now reflects ample physical supply rather than acute scarcity.

“What we saw this week was the last of the war-risk premium coming out, not the start of a fresh leg lower,” said Marisol Vega, chief commodities strategist at Hartfield Capital in New York. “From here, the conversation is about Chinese refinery runs, OPEC+ on June 4, and whether the U.S. driving season pulls inventories back to normal. The geopolitical bid is gone.”

The week’s defining macro event was Friday’s release of the April employment report. The Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls rose by 142,000, well below the consensus estimate of 168,000 and the weakest monthly print since last September. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.0 percent from 3.9 percent. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent on the month, a touch cooler than expected, leaving the year-over-year wage gain at 3.6 percent.

Markets read the report as a Goldilocks number — soft enough to push the Federal Reserve closer to a summer rate cut, but not weak enough to signal a stalling labor market. The two-year Treasury yield fell six basis points after the data to close the week at 3.76 percent. The 10-year yield finished at 4.05 percent, down nine basis points on the week and a full 46 basis points below its April high. Futures markets ended the week pricing a 71 percent probability of a quarter-point cut at the Fed’s July 30 meeting, up from 53 percent a week earlier, according to CME FedWatch data.

“This is exactly the print the Fed wanted,” said John Reilly, a senior macro analyst at Citi. “It gives them cover to start easing without admitting they were behind the curve, and it lines up with an oil chart that has done most of the disinflation work for them. The base case for July is now a cut.”

Earnings continued to surprise to the upside even as the season wound down. With 88 percent of the S&P 500 having reported by Friday’s close, blended first-quarter earnings growth stood at 10.6 percent year over year, according to FactSet, more than four percentage points above the pre-season estimate. Revenue growth tracked at 5.9 percent. Communications services, financials and consumer discretionary continued to lead; energy and materials lagged as the commodity reversal took hold.

Coinbase, which reported Thursday after the bell, beat on the top and bottom lines and saw its shares jump 9 percent on Friday. Honda Motor, which reported in Tokyo overnight, lifted its full-year guidance on stronger North American sales. Saudi Aramco, which reported Friday morning in Riyadh, posted a 9 percent decline in net income year over year, citing both lower realized prices and lower volumes during the conflict period; the company maintained its base dividend but trimmed its performance-linked payout, sending its shares down 1.4 percent in Tadawul trade. The broader Saudi index still closed the week up 1.8 percent.

The defense sector, which had been the spring’s runaway winner, gave back more ground. Lockheed Martin, RTX and Northrop Grumman each fell between 2 and 4 percent on the week. A Brightline Securities note published Wednesday trimmed the price target on RTX by another $6, with analyst Daniel Okafor writing that “the order-book bulge from March is being more than offset by a normalization in munitions reorders and softer foreign-military-sales pipeline guidance.”

Outside the United States, global equity markets followed Wall Street higher. Europe’s Stoxx 600 added 1.0 percent on the week despite a weaker-than-expected German industrial production print on Thursday. The Bank of England left rates unchanged on Thursday and signaled that a first cut remained possible in August, sending sterling to a four-month high of $1.281. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.6 percent over the week and the Hang Seng climbed 2.1 percent, helped by Hong Kong-listed technology names. Mainland Chinese markets reopened Wednesday after the Labour Day break to a mixed reception following last week’s soft official purchasing managers’ index; the Caixin services PMI released Tuesday came in at 50.4, just above the expansion threshold.

The dollar weakened for a fifth consecutive week, with the ICE Dollar Index closing at 101.8, its lowest level since mid-February. Gold ended the week at $2,294 an ounce, down nearly 12 percent from the April 2 panic high. Bitcoin held near $72,800, capping a quiet five sessions.

Insurance and shipping data underlined the normalization. The Joint Maritime Information Center reported tanker volumes through the Strait of Hormuz at 99 percent of January averages for the trailing seven days, the highest reading since the conflict began. London market war-risk premiums on hulls transiting the Gulf fell to 0.26 percent of insured value, broker Marsh McLennan reported in a note circulated Friday. The Joint War Committee is expected to consider revising its high-risk-area designation for the Persian Gulf at its quarterly meeting later this month, according to two underwriters familiar with the agenda.

“Reconstruction premiums are the next story to watch,” said Layla Hassan, a Beirut-based regional analyst at Levant Strategy Group, referring to the Marseille conference now underway on financing for postwar Iraq and Yemen. “Markets have priced peace. They have not yet priced who pays.”

The week ahead brings the April U.S. consumer price index on Wednesday, the producer price index on Thursday, and the next round of European earnings, headlined by Siemens and Allianz. Federal Reserve officials, still in their pre-meeting blackout period until the close of business Wednesday, were not scheduled to comment further on policy until Chair Jerome Powell’s appearance at a Council on Foreign Relations event on May 16. Officials said the International Energy Agency’s monthly oil market report, due May 14, would be the next major data point for the energy complex.