US STOCKS-Wall Street extends rally on speculation about end to Iran war
01/04/2026 19:52
Nike slumps on forecasting surprise Q4 sales drop
Intel jumps after Ireland factory stake buyback plans
Space stocks gain after report SpaceX filed for confidential IPO
S&P 500 +0.56%, Nasdaq +0.87%, Dow +0.45%
Updates with afternoon trading
By Noel Randewich and Purvi Agarwal
April 1 (Reuters) -
Wall Street climbed on Wednesday, with strong gains in Alphabet and other heavyweights, after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested an end to the Middle East conflict could be close.
The U.S. will be "out of Iran pretty quickly" and could return for "spot hits" if needed, Trump told Reuters, hours before he was scheduled to address the nation about the war.
"We have Trump's comments, which tend to change a bit," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. "Everybody's trying to guess as to what he really means by what he's saying. The markets want it to be positive, they want the war to be over."
Technology-related heavyweights rallied, with Alphabet GOOGL.O up 3.7%, Meta Platforms META.O gaining 2% and Amazon AMZN.O up 1.6%.
Wall Street has rallied for two consecutive days as investors speculated that the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran will end soon. Energy prices have spiked in the latest month, sparking fears of global inflation, as the conflict choked the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
Even after recent gains, the S&P 500 is trading at under 20 times expected earnings, its lowest earnings multiple in 10 months, according to LSEG data.
The PHLX chip index .SOX jumped 3% on Wednesday, bringing its gain in the past two days to about 9%.
SpaceX confidentially filed for an initial public offering, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, sending space stocks higher.
Intuitive Machines LUNR.O gained 6%, Planet Labs PL.N was up 8% and Rocket Lab RKLB.O added 2.5%. The Destiny Tech100 DXYZ.N investment fund, which owns SpaceX shares, jumped by more than 8%.
Eli Lilly LLY.N rose 4.5% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drugmaker's weight loss pill, to be sold under the brand name Foundayo.
Intel INTC.O surged 8.6% after it said it would buy back Apollo's stake in its Ireland factory for $14.2 billion.
The S&P 500 was up 0.56% at 6,564.87 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.87% to 21,777.75 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.45% at 46,549.46 points.
Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by industrials .SPLRCI, up 1.77%, followed by a 1.41% gain in communication services .SPLRCL.
The CBOE Volatility Index .VIX, Wall Street's fear gauge, slipped to an over one-week low.
Oil prices fell as much as 3%, and the S&P 500 energy index .SPNY tumbled 4% to its lowest in over a week. Airlines jumped, with the S&P Composite Passenger Airlines sub-index .SPCOMAIR up 2.3%.
Nike NKE.N slumped 15% to a decade low after the sportswear giant forecast a surprise drop in its fourth-quarter sales.
ADP's national employment report showed private payrolls increased steadily in March, while retail sales increased by the most in seven months in February. U.S. manufacturing activity picked up last month, according to The Institute for Supply Management's gauge.
Nonfarm payroll figures for March will be in focus on Friday, although U.S. markets will be closed for the Good Friday holiday.
Due to increased fears of inflation, traders now believe it is more likely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by year-end than cut rates.
Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 .AD.SPX by a 1.5-to-one ratio.
The S&P 500 posted five new highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 57 new highs and 95 new lows.
S&P 500's forward PE ticks lower https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/klvylqgqrpg/Pasted%20image%201775068275519.png
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Devika Syamnath and David Gregorio)
((noel.randewich@thomsonreuters.com))