But the trip there offered alternating optimism and pessimism about the possibility of a quick end to the Iran war and, as a result, volatile trading.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen 0.6 percent, the broad-based S&P 500 index had climbed 0.2 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq had risen 0.1 percent.
Semiconductor giant Nvidia fell 1.8 percent. Despite a strong quarterly report after the stock market closed on Wednesday, investors had hoped for even better numbers.
Retail giant Walmart gave a weaker forecast for both the current quarter and the full year in its quarterly report than analysts had expected. The stock fell 7.3 percent.
The oil price fell by around 1 percent to around $97 per barrel for U.S. WTI and just under $104 for North Sea crude.
