Amazon Jumps 3.8% After Announcing Globalstar Buy

US stocks rallied to the edge of their all-time high on Tuesday and crude oil prices eased as hopes climbed that the United States and Iran may try again on talks to end their war.

• The S&P 500 rose 81.14 points, or 1.2%, to 6,967.38, bringing the index within 0.2% of its record set in January.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 317.74 points, or 0.7%, to 48,535.99.
• The Nasdaq composite rose 455.35 points, or 2%, to 23,639.08.

If talks succeed and the war ends up being only a temporary setback for the global economy, investors can turn their attention back to the rising profits for companies that had markets worldwide doing well before the fighting began, the AP reports.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, has gone from roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times when worries about the war hit their heights. Brent for June delivery fell 4.6% to $94.79 per barrel Tuesday. A barrel of US crude oil for May delivery dropped 7.9% to $91.28. Blockages in the Strait of Hormuz have kept oil off the global market, which has in turn driven up its price. And that has meant a blast of higher inflation. In the United States, inflation at the wholesale level accelerated to 4% in March from 3.4% the month before, according to the latest data released Tuesday. That was actually better than the 4.6% rate economists expected, but it could filter down to US households if businesses fully pass on the increases.

• The effect is worldwide. Global inflation this year looks set to accelerate to 4.4% from 4.1% in 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund, which had earlier thought inflation would slow to 3.8%. The IMF on Tuesday also downgraded its forecast for global economic growth to 3.1% this year from the 3.3% it had forecast in January.

On Wall Street, strong profit reports from several companies and expectations for more helped make up for such worries. BlackRock gained 3% and Citigroup rose 2.6% Tuesday after the financial companies reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. JPMorgan Chase also delivered a better-than-expected quarter, but its stock dipped 0.7% as CEO Jamie Dimon said bank officials cannot predict how the "increasingly complex set of risks" will play out given so much uncertainty. Amazon climbed 3.8% after saying it would buy Globalstar, a mobile satellite services company, for $90 per share in either cash or Amazon stock. Globalstar jumped 9.6%.

Software companies also rallied for a second day, recovering more of their sharp losses from earlier in the year taken on worries that they could be made obsolete by artificial-intelligence technology. AppLovin rose 3.9%, and an ETF from iShares tracking the software industry added 0.5%. That in turn helped private-credit companies rebound. These companies have lent money to software businesses and others that may be under threat from AI, and they've seen investors rush to try to pull their money recently. Blue Owl Capital rose 8.5%, Ares Management climbed 5.6%, and Apollo Global Management rose 4.4%. They helped offset a 5/7% drop for Wells Fargo, which reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.