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U.S. equities gained on Thursday, boosted by a rebound in chip stocks, after President Donald Trump called off the strikes on Iran scheduled for this evening and said the U.S. is going to soon sign a deal with the country.
The Dow Jones Industrials popped 929.60 points, or 1.9%, to end the session at 50,848.38.
The S&P 500 index resurged 127.31 points, or 1.8%, to 7,394.30
The NASDAQ accelerated 640.16 points, or 2.5%, to 25,809.66.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “we have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.” He continued, “We have a signing soon, and the documents are in pretty final shape. It should be done and it should be done pretty quickly.”
Equities had rallied earlier Thursday after Trump said in a Truth Social post that he “cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening.”
The market was given momentum from a rebound in Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.
Intel was upgraded by Bank of America from underperform to buy on Thursday and the shares responded with a 7% gain.
Enthusiasm is building ahead of SpaceX’s debut on Friday, which could highlight the expected growth in the AI buildout. Although some traders believe the recent chip weakness is due to investors selling the stocks in their portfolios to make room for the IPO, which will be the largest debut ever at a roughly $1.8-trillion valuation.
Still, not all of tech was a bright spot Thursday. Shares of Oracle dropped 11% as the software giant announced plans to raise an additional $20 billion in equity and debt to pay for its artificial intelligence buildout.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures were trading down 3% at around $86 a barrel after Trump’s announcement. Brent crude futures also fell 3% to around $89 a barrel.
Markets were on edge earlier in the day as oil prices rose after Trump said in another Truth Social post that the U.S. will be attacking Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT.” He also said, “At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets.”
Core inflation — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — stood at 0.4%, below the Dow Jones forecast for 0.5%.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury hiked, lowering yields to 4.46% from Wednesday’s 4.55%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices backtracked $3.56 to $86.47 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices moved forward $98.60 to $4,231.90 U.S. an ounce.
