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%.  

Since the war has so heavily hit the tech sector, the chip index has also rallied nearly 3% two days in a row. Oil also fell sharply and other good news include private payrolls increasing steadily in March, retails sales up the most in seven months, and manufacturing also up, all of which will put even greater focus on Friday’s non-farm payrolls even though markets are closed Friday for the Easter weekend. Hedging bets that this could still go sideways, evidenced by the Dow reaching a high of almost a +500 before retreating, volume came in below the 20.2 average, closing at 18.8 billion. 

DJ: 46,341.51  +1,125.37     NAS: 21,590.63  +795.99      S&P: 6,528.52  +184.80         3/31

DJ: 46,565.74  +224.23        NAS: 21,840.95  +250.32      S&P: 6,575.32  +46.80           4/1

Wed 4-1-26 4:50 pm Wall Street ends higher on speculation about end to Iran war | Reuters