The US stock market surged to the cusp of its all-time high on Monday amid conflicting signals about the status of negotiations on ending the war on Iran.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.5 percent, leaving the benchmark index just shy of its closing record of 7,620.90 set on June 2. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.1 percent, closing 4.3 percent below its all-time peak of 27,093.90, also set on June 2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks 30 blue-chip companies, rose 1.3 percent to hit a record high of 53,178.41.
The “Magnificent Seven” tech giants were at the forefront of the rally, with all except Apple making substantial gains. Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, rose 6 percent, while Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet climbed between 4.4 and 4.9 percent. Chip giant Nvidia rose 2.9 percent, and EV maker Tesla jumped 3.5 percent. The broad-based rally continued in after-hours trading, with S&P 500 futures rising more than 0.2 percent.
“I am extremely surprised by the magnitude of the rally,” said Melissa Brown, managing director of Investment Decision Research at SimCorp, told Al Jazeera. “It comes against the backdrop of relatively negative sentiment, and without a real fundamental reason to support it.”
Oil prices, meanwhile, began to decline. Brent crude, the primary international benchmark, fell about 5 percent on Monday before climbing as Asian markets opened on Tuesday. Brent futures for September delivery stood at about $84.50 per barrel as of 02:00 GMT, up 0.9 percent from Monday’s close.
Asian stock markets fell on Tuesday after seeing gains in early morning trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index were both down 0.8 percent as of 02:00 GMT. South Korea’s KOSPI, which has been volatile in 2026 amid furious demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence, fell 1.2 percent.
The latest market moves came as Washington and Tehran offered conflicting accounts of the communications between the sides. US President Donald Trump said on Monday that talks with Iran were under way and that he wanted to give Tehran “every last chance” to sign a deal before facing renewed strikes.
Trump’s comments came a day after he announced that he had called off plans to launch the “biggest attack since World War II” following discussions with Gulf leaders. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, earlier on Monday told a news conference that Tehran was not engaged in talks with Washington and had no meetings with US officials planned. Baghaei said Iranian officials were currently in negotiations with Oman on allowing ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz and that issues between the US and Iran would need to be addressed in the “next stages.”
Source: www.aljazeera.com