Dow Jumps More Than 600 Points as Report of Revived U.S.-Iran Talks Lifts Stocks and Oil Retreats

Wall Street staged a sharp reversal on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing more than 600 points after a report that mediators had presented a proposal to revive talks between the United States and Iran eased the oil shock that has rattled markets for weeks.

At 10:31 a.m. ET, the Dow was up 617.62 points, or 1.22 percent, at 52,599.29. The S&P 500 gained 0.70 percent to 7,744.72, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.59 percent to 26,585.47, brushing off premarket weakness in artificial-intelligence stocks.

The rally followed an Al-Araby Al-Jadeed report — which The Wall Street Journal said it had not verified — that mediators had put forward a plan to restart U.S.-Iran diplomacy. Brent crude, which had touched a near five-month high earlier in the day, fell back below 110 dollars a barrel, down about 1.3 percent.

Healthcare stocks hit a record high, rising 1.8 percent, and financials added 1 percent, while most S&P 500 constituents gained. Energy shares lagged as crude fell, and a decline of about 2 percent in Meta Platforms weighed on communication services. AI-linked names were flat to higher after a weak open: CoreWeave, which plunged more than 25 percent last week on worries about the debt it is taking on to finance the AI buildout, rose 1.6 percent, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor index gained 0.4 percent.

"You are seeing some strength in some high-value stocks and the Dow, and so that's helping to sort of lift the overall index," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth. "Concerns about what's going on as far as semiconductors, that's still there and AI-related names are down, but for the most part, the rest of the market is seeing a bit of a nice rebound."

The advance extended Monday's rebound, when the S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq more than 1 percent as investors bought the dip in technology shares after last week's selloff.

Not every market shared the optimism. In Seoul, shares of data-center company Elice Group tumbled nearly 30 percent in their trading debut, slipping below their IPO price — a reminder of how quickly sentiment toward AI infrastructure spending can turn.

Investors now turn to a dense earnings calendar. Around 70 S&P 500 companies report this week, including SpaceX's second earnings release as a public company, plus Netflix and United Airlines after Tuesday's close, with Meta Platforms and Tesla due Wednesday.

Source: Reuters