Dow Clocks Best Day So Far This Month, S&P 500 And Nasdaq Climb As Oil, Yields Cool Off— META, LOW, HAS, NVDA, INTU In Focus

• The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones rose 1% and 1.3% respectively, and the Nasdaq gained 1.4%.
• The US president said that negotiations with Iran were in the final stages but warned of further attacks unless Iran agrees to a deal.
• Investors turn their focus to Nvidia’s earnings call later in the day for clues on AI demand and its attempts to re-enter the Chinese market. 

U.S. benchmark stock indices jumped on Wednesday as investors cheered de-escalating signs around the ongoing U.S.-Iran war, while shifting focus onto Nvidia’s earnings to judge the future of the semiconductor maven. 

The S&P 500 rose 1%, the Nasdaq jumped 1.4%, and the Dow Jones gained 1.3%. The Russell 2000, which tracks stocks with small market capitalizations, soared 2.6%, after falling for three consecutive sessions. 

Among ETFs tracking benchmark indexes, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) rose 1%, and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ended Wednesday around 1.4% higher, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) gained 1.3%. 

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) soared 3.5%. 

Meanwhile, retail sentiment on Stocktwits for SPY, QQQ, and DIA was all in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory with ‘extremely high’ message volumes.  

US Market Drivers

Oil prices fell 6% on Wednesday after Donald Trump said that negotiations with Iran were in the final stages, though investors remain wary about the outcome of peace talks. 

West Texas Intermediate futures fell more than 5% to close at $98.26 per barrel. International benchmark Brent futures also lost more than 5% to settle at $105.02 per barrel, as per data from CNBC. 

However, Trump has made several optimistic comments in the past relating to the end of the Iran war, only for tensions to escalate again between Washington and Tehran. 

Trump said “we’ll see what happens” with Iran, adding that a deal will be made or “we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen,” according to a White House pool report.  

Treasury yields also cooled following the developments. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped more than 8 basis points on Wednesday, and the 30-year Treasury yield shed 6 basis points after soaring to its highest since 2007 in the previous session. 

In other news, Federal Reserve officials expressed mounting anxiety over persistent inflationary pressures at their latest policy meeting, with a growing number of policymakers warning that the central bank may need to consider raising interest rates if inflationary pressures fail to cool. 

However, according to the latest CME FedWatch tool, the probability still favors the Federal Reserve holding rates steady at 3.5% to 3.75% in its June meeting, but the odds are tipping for a rate hike in the last quarter of 2026. 

“Everyone wants to see this end, but negotiations so far have been far apart on key issues, with both sides expecting each other to blink first,” said veteran strategist Louis Navellier in an interview to Bloomberg. “Even if a deal is struck, it may take some time to be sure it won’t be violated for things to fully return to normal.” 

Consumer discretionary and technology stocks led gains on Wednesday. Nvidia released its quarterly earnings report after-hours, beating revenue and earnings expectations. But the stock eased about 0.7% in after-market trading. 

Trending Stocks To Watch 

Meta Platforms (META): CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told employees that he does not expect any more company-wide job cuts this year.  

Lowe’s (LOW): Shares edged up by 0.2% on Wednesday, as the company reported net earnings of $1.6 billion and diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.90 for the quarter ended May 1, 2026.   

Hasbro (HAS): The company reported a mixed first quarter (Q1) and disclosed details about a data breach incident that occurred in March this year. 

Nvidia (NVDA): Nvidia shares ended Wednesday 1.3% higher ahead of its quarterly earnings, which were reported in after-market hours. At the time of writing, the company reported revenue and earnings that beat expectations, while the stock slipped 1% in extended trading hours. 

Intuit (INTU): The company will lay off about 17% of its global workforce as it looks to sharpen its focus on artificial intelligence.   

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