Wall Street ends higher as Middle East peace talks lift sentiment

Wall Street ends higher as Middle East peace talks lift sentiment

By Stephen Culp and Avinash P

Thu April 9, 2026  

Yesterday’s disruptions to the cease-fire quite predictably caused all three indexes to open down this morning, the Dow a minus 220 by 11 a.m.  But the markets then began a recovery likely sparked by Israel seeking talks with Lebanon and continued optimism that the Iran agreements would hold, particularly the promise to temporarily reopen the Strait of Hormuz which Iran had initially promised would happen today.  

Wall Street ends sharply higher on US-Iran ceasefire

Wall Street ends sharply higher on US-Iran ceasefire

By Stephen Culp and Purvi Agarwal

Wed April 8, 2026  

Since the two-week cease-fire agreement was announced nearly 3 hours after the markets closed yesterday, it was quite predictable that the indexes would soar today. And soar they did right out the gate and stayed there all day, the Dow racing up 4-digits to its biggest one-day gain in a year, while the S&P and Nasdaq regained a lot of the ground lost since the start of the war. This jubilation continued despite the hiccups in the cease-fire agreement that occurred throughout the day.  

Wall Street closes mixed, with signs of progress as Trump's Iran deadline draws near

Wall Street closes mixed, with signs of progress as Trump's Iran deadline draws near

By Stephen Culp and Purvi Agarwal

Tue April 7, 2026  

The day started as a disaster with the Dow down over 650 points by 11 a.m. But once again investors chose to take the positive approach that there would be a peace deal and rather downplay Trump’s fiery rhetoric. There was encouragement when Pakistan said that talks were progressing steadily while urging a 2-week extension on the Iran attack deadline while also asking Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz for that 2-week period.  

Wall St ends higher as investors parse US-Iran negotiations, threats

Wall St ends higher as investors parse US-Iran negotiations, threats

By Stephen Culp and Purvi Agarwal

Mon April 6, 2026

 

Mixed messages continue to haunt the markets as investors try to balance peace talks vs Trump’s increasingly heated war rhetoric. But Wall Street continues to lean towards putting more weight on the peace talks. With that, the indexes were quite predictably bumpy again but ended on a positive note with both the Dow and Nasdaq closing with 3-digit gains. The jobs report released on Good Friday showed stellar gains, triple the forecast, but this was tempered by a sharp upward revision of February job losses with over 40,000 additional jobs gone.  

Oil prices soar, and stocks end mixed in volatile trade

Oil prices soar, and stocks end mixed in volatile trade

By Chris Prentice and Marc Jones

Thu April 2, 2026 8:18 PM  

Wall Street rallied like crazy the last two days almost entirely due to expectations that Trump would be announcing the end of the war last night. Then he did exactly the opposite, not only no end but at least a few more weeks of even more intense fighting. All the optimism faded and there was a huge crash right at open, the Dow coming down almost 700 points with the other indexes following suit. But it must have been the case come 10 a.m. that sentiment switched to business as usual as investors knew full well that it’s difficult to interpret Trump.  

Wall Street ends higher on speculation about end to Iran war

Wall Street ends higher on speculation about end to Iran war

By Noel Randewich and Purvi Agarwal

Wed April 1, 2026  

For a second straight day, optimism over an end to the war has sent stocks further up from yesterday’s huge rallies. Investors continue to choose to believe the Trump news or, as today’s expert put it, “We have Trump’s comments, which tend to change a bit. 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.” Today’s gains have lifted the S&P’s losses for the year to 4% vs yesterday’s 4.7%.  

Wall Street soars as traders bet on potential war off-ramp

Wall Street soars as traders bet on potential war off-ramp

By Noel Randewich and Purvi Agarwal

Tue March 31, 2026   

It must have been right around 12:30 pm that Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he was no longer holding the Strait of Hormuz as a condition for ending the war and Iranian media itself reported that the Iranian leader was now open to negotiation. For it was at that moment that all three indexes zoomed through the roof. The war has caused the biggest quarterly decline in four years and today saw the biggest one-day gain since last May.