Pedestrians at Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, July 24, 2025. Brendon Thorne | Bloomberg | Getty Images Markets in Australia and Japan mostly rose Friday, mirroring gains on Wall Street that saw both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reach new highs. This comes as investors took in strong earnings from Apple and Caterpillar , looking past weaker-than-expected economic data and threats of escalation in Iran by U.S. President Donald Trump. Brent  crude prices had risen to top $126 a barrel after Axios reported that the U.S. military would brief Trump on potential action against Iran. Brent closed at $110.40 a barrel, while U.S West Texas Intermediate was 0.61% up at $105.71, as of 7:46 p.m. ET. On Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product rose at a 2% annualized pace in the first quarter. While that was an increase from 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025, it was below the 2.2% consensus estimate by Wall Street economists.…