US stocks rallied to their best day in two months, and oil prices fell Thursday, after President Trump called off his threat to bomb Iran in the evening. That raised hopes for a deal that could get the global flow of oil going again.
- The Dow rose 929.97 to 50,848.75.
- The S&P 500 jumped 127.31 points to 7,394.30.
- The Nasdaq rallied 640.16 to 25,809.66.
Stocks immediately veered higher in midday trading, the AP reports, after Trump said on his social media network that "discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved" and that the time and place of a signing will "be announced shortly." A deal to end the war with Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to carry crude again from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. The price for a barrel of benchmark US crude sank 2.6% to $87.71. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2.9% to $90.38, though it's still above its roughly $70 price from before the war.
AI stocks had already been rolling back up their roller coaster early Thursday, before Trump made his announcement. Marvell Technology climbed 11.1%. It's coming off a manic stretch where it plunged 16.7%, soared 9.6% and then fell more than 5% for two straight days. Just before that, it had a one-day surge of 32.5% that was its best in history when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang suggested it could be "the next trillion-dollar company." It was worth a bit more than $190 billion at the time. Companies involved in the making of chips, meanwhile, jumped to some of the market's biggest gains. Lam Research leaped 12.7%, and KLA climbed 12.9%. They helped offset an 8.5% drop for Oracle.
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