U.S. stocks surged to their best day since last spring, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,125 points on Tuesday as doubt swung back to hope on Wall Street about a possible end to the war with Iran. The S&P 500 leaped 2.9% for its largest gain since May. Just a day before, worries about the war had sent the main measure of Wall Street’s health more than 9% below its all-time high set early this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 2.5%, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 3.8%.
Markets turned optimistic overnight after a Wall Street Journal report claimed President Donald Trump told aides he's open to ending the U.S. military campaign against Iran, even if the Strait of Hormuz—through which a fifth of global oil flows—stays largely closed.
Oil prices plunged midday after Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian signaled willingness to end the war if demands like aggression guarantees are met, easing fears of prolonged Persian Gulf disruptions and inflation; Brent crude fell 3.2% to $103.97 a barrel while U.S. crude dropped 1.5% to $101.38. Prices could spike again if tankers can't pass the Strait of Hormuz easily—especially after Iran attacked a Kuwaiti oil tanker—amid oil-driven inflation already accelerating Europe's rate to 2.5% in March from 1.9%.
U.S. gasoline prices topped $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022, squeezing household budgets and curbing spending elsewhere, while profit margin worries drove the S&P 500 to its worst quarterly loss since summer 2022 at 4.6%. Tuesday's oil price easing cushioned the blow, boosting fuel-sensitive stocks like United Airlines (up 8.1%) and Norwegian Cruise Line (up 5.9%) to trim their year-to-date declines.
Tech stocks were the strongest forces where four out of every five stocks within the S&P 500 rose. Marvell Technology shot up 12.8% after Nvidia invested $2 billion in the company and announced a partnership with it. Nvidia rose 5.6% and was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500. Centessa Pharmaceuticals surged 44% after Eli Lilly announced a $7.8 billion acquisition (if conditions met) for its treatments targeting excessive daytime sleepiness and neurological conditions, lifting Lilly shares 3.7%. They helped offset a 6.1% drop for McCormick. The spice company is buying most of Unilever’s food business, including such brands as Hellmann’s, for cash and stock valuing it at $44.8 billion.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a tougher finish in Asia. South Korea’s Kospi fell 4.3% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.6% for two of the bigger moves.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.31% from 4.35% late Monday and from 4.44% at the end of last week. That’s a significant move for the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was at just 3.97% in late February, before worries about high oil prices pushed traders to erase bets for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve this year. One said confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly improved. The other said U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of February than expected, though fewer than the month before.