U.S. Stocks, Oil Waver on Iran Ceasefire Extension Amid CEO Shifts
The S&P 500 erased an early rise to fall 0.6% after U.S. Vice President JD Vance called off a trip to Pakistan, where he was expected to lead U.S. negotiators in talks with Iran to extend the ceasefire. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 293 points, or 0.6%, after erasing an earlier gain of 400 points while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.6%.
Oil prices also wavered before Trump announced the extension, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude went from less than $95 to roughly $100 during the day. It settled at $98.48, up 3.1%.
Stock market moves were more modest than the wild swings earlier in the war, when Brent crude briefly topped $119 and the S&P 500 fell nearly 10% below its prior high. Markets remain near recent records set Friday, signaling optimism that the U.S. and Iran will avoid economic disaster. As Brian Jacobsen of Annex Wealth Management notes, the economic impact hinges on the Middle East conflict's duration. Tension centers on the Strait of Hormuz, where a closure could trap oil in the Persian Gulf.
UnitedHealth Group and other firms cushioned Wall Street losses with better-than-expected quarterly profits. Trump's Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh denied promising rate cuts despite Trump's demands, navigating a tightrope to preserve the Fed's independence amid Senate scrutiny.
UnitedHealth jumped 7% after also raising its forecast for profit over the full year of 2026. Quest Diagnostics rose 4.4% after likewise reporting fatter profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected while also raising its profit forecast for the full year. Amazon added 0.7% after Anthropic said it signed a new agreement and is committing more than $100 billion over the next 10 years to AWS technologies to train and run its Claude chatbot.
They were all nevertheless overshadowed by a 2.5% drop for Apple, which was the day?s heaviest weight on the S&P 500. It fell in its first trading after Tim Cook said he?ll step down as CEO on Sept. 1 and become the iPhone maker?s executive chairman. Cook is handing control over to John Ternus, a company veteran who rose through Apple?s hardware engineering ranks. Tractor Supply dropped 11.7% after reporting profit and revenue for the latest quarter that fell short of expectations.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. South Korea?s Kospi rallied 2.7% for one of the world?s biggest moves.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose after a report on Tuesday morning showed that U.S. retailers made more money in March, the first full month of the war, than analysts expected. Growth was even relatively stable for retail sales when not including those from gasoline stations. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.31% from 4.26% late Monday, and the gains accelerated late in the day with oil prices.
