QQQ and SPY end higher, with SPY 0.16 points ahead after Treasury buybacks and Hormuz talks

By 04:00 ET, QQQ was up 0.17% and SPY 0.33%, after opening 0.33% and 0.38% higher and narrowing during regular trading before a partial after-hours recovery. The Treasury expanded long-term nominal bond buybacks, Fed minutes recorded some support for a rate hike and flagged AI-valuation risks, limited Nvidia H200 shipments reached ByteDance and Tencent, and a U.S.-backed Hormuz corridor moved about 10 million barrels of oil per day. Overnight, Japan reported 23.2% export growth with semiconductor-equipment exports up 49.1%, while Iran-Oman talks on a Hormuz shipping mechanism neared completion.