Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
The S&P 500 rose to a new all-time high on Wednesday, building on the week’s strong gains as investors remained hopeful about the Iran war potentially ending soon.
The broad market index gained 0.8%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 32 points, or 0.1%. If the gains hold, it would mark the S&P 500′s 10th positive session in 11 and extend the technology-heavy Nasdaq’s winning streak to 11.
Stocks have been riding high this week on the possibility that a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran could materialize. The S&P 500, which fully recovered from its Iran war losses on Monday, has risen 3% this week. The Nasdaq and Dow, meanwhile, have added more than 4% and 1% week to date.
S&P 500, year-to-date
“The setup coming into [the war] was that market participants had de-risked to a degree in anticipation that maybe things might get bad, and then as that seems like it’s maybe less of a likelihood, they’re needing to buy,” said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. “People don’t want to miss out on an up market.”
President Donald Trump offered more hope to investors that the war may not last much longer, saying in a interview with Fox Business Wednesday that the Iran war is “very close to over” and claiming once again that Iran wants to “make a deal very badly.”
A second round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran is under discussion, a White House official told CNBC Tuesday. Nothing has been officially scheduled yet, noted the official, who asked not to be named to discuss the administration’s internal plans.
“Is there going to be a deal that will allow the Strait of Hormuz to open up and there to be less rhetoric on stopping the flow of goods? The market seems to be saying that it thinks there will be,” Martin said.
Broadcom was a key winner of Wednesday’s session, rising 3%. This comes on the heels of Meta Platforms extending its partnership with Broadcom to deploy custom chips using the chipmaker’s technology.
