Stocks posted another strong session on Tuesday as market participants looked past the dissolution of the first round of peace talks between the United States and Iran, instead holding to hopes that the two nations will reach a near-term ceasefire agreement.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) climbed over 300 points to settle at 48,535.99, while the S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) added about 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: QQQ) advanced nearly 2% to close at 6,967.38 and 23,639.08, respectively.
Wall Street's positive momentum was supported by President Donald Trump posting on social media late Monday that officials from Tehran have reached out to negotiation, adding that "they'd like to make a deal very badly." Crude oil futures reversed their recent gains and fell lower on the sentiment, with West Texas Intermediate fall about 8% to settle at $91.28 per barrel and international benchmark Brent crude losing nearly 5% to close at $94.79 per barrel.
Also boosting outlooks, wholesale inflation rose at a less-than-expected rate in March, even as the U.S.-Iran war impacted energy prices throughout the month.
The producer price index (PPI), which measures the final demand cost of goods and services, increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, coming in well below consensus estimates for growth of 1.1%. Excluding food and energy, core PPI rose just 0.1% on the month.
On an annual basis, headline PPI accelerated by 4% -- the index's biggest jump since February 2023 -- and core PPI rose by 3.8%.
On the earnings front, financial giants including JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup (NYSE: C), BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) each posted better than expected headline results for their recent quarters. JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who leads the largest U.S. bank by multiple metrics, said in a statement on Tuesday that while the U.S. economy remained resilient throughout the first-quarter, many uncertainties lay on the horizon.
"There is an increasingly complex set of risks -- such as geopolitical tensions and wars, energy price volatility, trade uncertainty, large global fiscal deficits and elevated asset prices," Dimon said in a statement. "While we cannot predict how these risks and uncertainties will ultimately play out, they are significant and they reinforce why we prepare the firm for a wide range of environments."
In corporate news, Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) shares popped on Tuesday after the Ozempic-maker announced a new partnership with OpenAI to "bring new and better treatment options to patients faster."
The deal will enable Novo to use the start-up's AI models to analyze complex datasets in order to identify potential new drugs and reduce tim between the research and patient use, Novo said in a release.
"Integrating AI in our everyday work gives us the ability to analyze datasets at a scale that was previously impossible, identify patterns we could not see, and test hypotheses faster than ever," Novo CEO Mike Doustdar said in a statement.
For Wednesday, market participants will turn their attention towards earnings reports from companies including ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).