Stan Choe
The US stock market is rising toward records after an easing of oil prices let Wall Street turn its focus back to the big profits that companies keep producing.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9 per cent and was on track to top its all-time high set at the end of last week. The Dow Jones was up 300 points, or 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite was heading toward its own record after climbing 1.1 per cent. The Australian sharemarket is set to rise, with futures pointing to a gain of 51 points, or 0.6 per cent, at the open. The ASX slid 0.2 per cent on Tuesday, as the Reserve Bank unveiled a third-straight interest rate hike. The Australian dollar was trading at US71.86¢ at 5.11am AEST.
Stocks got a boost after oil prices gave back some of their big jumps from Monday. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.7 per cent to $US110.19 after briefly topping $US115 on Monday, though it’s still well above its roughly $US70 price from before the war with Iran.
US military leaders said Tuesday that a ceasefire with Iran remains in effect, even though Iran was blamed for attacks against the United Arab Emirates the day before. The US military is meanwhile trying to force open a path in the Strait of Hormuz, which would allow oil tankers to resume shipments from the Persian Gulf and hopefully bring down the price of crude.
Even with the war ongoing, the US stock market has remained remarkably resilient on its record-setting run. That’s in large part due to the strong profits that US companies have reported for the start of 2026 despite the rise in oil prices since the end of February.
“This has been a ‘why ask why’ market,” according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “You just have to go with it.”
Even though many risks are still weighing on the market, “investors are looking at earnings” and how much companies are spending on AI data centres and other investments, he said.
DuPont’s stock rallied 7.6 per cent after the chemical giant led another cavalcade of companies reporting better-than-expected profits for the latest quarter.
DuPont said its water technologies business felt some impact from the war due to logistics disruptions in the Middle East. But it nevertheless raised its forecasts for financial results over the full year.
Other winners included American Electric Power Co., which rose 3.1 per cent, and Cummins, which added 2.2 per cent, after they likewise made more money during the first three months of the year than analysts expected.
Pinterest soared 9.2 per cent after the online bulletin board topped Wall Street’s first-quarter sales and profit targets as its number of active monthly users jumped 11 per cent to 631 million.
AB InBev likewise topped analysts’ profit forecasts, and it credited growth for its Corona, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra brands outside of their home markets. “Cheers to beer,” CEO Michel Doukeris said, as the company’s stock that trades in the United States jumped 9.2 per cent.
They helped offset a drop for Palantir Technologies, which fell 6.6 per cent even though it reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock has struggled this year with worries about increased competition, like many software companies have. Its stock is also coming off a huge run where it more than doubled in each of the last three years.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe. The CAC 40 rose 1.1 per cent in Paris, but the FTSE 100 fell 1.4 per cent in London. Many Asian markets were closed for holidays, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.8 per cent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2 per cent after the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 4.35 per cent, saying conflict in the Middle East had sharply increased fuel and commodity prices that were already adding to inflation.
In the US bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices gave back some of Monday’s gains and reports on the US economy came in mixed.
One said that growth for US services businesses unexpectedly decelerated last month, with some companies saying the war is slowing spending. A separate report said US employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of March than economists expected, an encouraging signal for the job market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.42 per cent from 4.45 per cent late Monday. That’s still well above its 3.97 per cent level from just before the war began. That rise has made mortgages and other kinds of loans for US households and businesses more expensive.
AP
The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.
