Wall Street climbs, Dow at record high with US-Iran talks in spotlight

NEW YORK: Wall Street's main indexes rose on Friday ahead of a long weekend, ​with the blue-chip Dow ⁠hitting a record high for the first time since the Iran war began, as investors tracked progress ‌in talks to end the nearly three-month-old ‌conflict.

The S&P 500 is on track for an eighth consecutive weekly gain, which would mark its best winning streak since December 2023.

Most megacap and growth stocks traded higher, with Apple up 2%, hitting a market capitalization of more than $4.5 trillion for the first time.

Semiconductor stocks, a key ‌driver of recent Wall Street gains, were broadly up with the Philadelphia chip index rising 2.4%. Qualcomm led the pack with a 12% jump.

PC ⁠makers Dell Technologies and HP Inc surged over 15% each after China's Lenovo Group reported a better-than-expected 27% jump in quarterly revenue.

In the latest on the Iran situation, Reuters reported that a Qatari negotiating team arrived in Tehran in coordination with the United States to try to help secure a deal to end the war and resolve outstanding issues.

"The market has been working under the assumption that there's going to be relatively near-term resolution," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC.

"If that assumption proves to be wrong, the ​market will catch down very quickly. The market has been trained that there's an embedded Trump put in the market." Global ‌stocks have whipsawed since the conflict began in late February, but hopes of an eventual resolution to the war, optimism in the AI trade and resilient earnings growth have propelled US stocks to record highs this month.

The market recovery, however, has faced some hurdles as investors fret about ⁠the inflationary impact of surging oil prices, pushing government bond yields higher around the world and hitting risk appetite this week.

At 11:34 am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 408.59 points, or 0.82%, to 50,697.24, the S&P 500 gained 48.08 points, or 0.65%, to 7,493.79 and the Nasdaq Composite ​gained 174.66 points, or ‌0.67%, to 26,467.76.

Seven out of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were higher, led by information technology.

Meanwhile, government bond ‌yields were steady after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said the Fed should axe the "easing bias" from its policy statement and effectively open the door to a possible rate hike.

Kevin Warsh will be sworn in as Fed leader at the White House later in the day, taking over the ‌reins from Jerome Powell, a ‌pivotal moment for monetary policy and the American economy.

The CBOE volatility ⁠index hit a more than two-week low ahead of the three-day market holiday, with US markets shut on Monday ‌for Memorial Day.

Meanwhile, the price-weighted Dow notched its first intraday record high since February 10, becoming the last of the three main US stock indexes to hit the milestone.

Among others, Estée Lauder surged 10.5% after the cosmetics maker ⁠and Spanish perfumery Puig ended talks for a potential merger.

Workday added 3.6% after the human resources software provider exceeded expectations for first-quarter revenue ​and profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.3-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.37-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 100 new ⁠highs and 56 new lows.

Canada's main stock index hit an all-time high on Friday and ​was ⁠on track for a weekly gain as technology shares ‌advanced, while investors watched for ‌signs of a breakthrough in talks to end the nearly three-month-long Middle East conflict. At 10:09 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX Composite Index was ‌up 0.2% at 34,479.10 points, surpassing the earlier peak it reached on March ⁠2.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said there have been "some good signs" in negotiations to end the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, though differences remained over Tehran's uranium stockpile and control of the key Strait of Hormuz.

"The situation is growing old for investors. Tolerance for these headlines is ​increasing, meaning it takes more to move the needle. The market ‌focus has shifted more toward what’s happening in the tech world,” said Allan Small, senior investment advisor of the Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private ⁠Wealth.

Technology shares led gains on the index, rising 1.1%. BlackBerry, CGI Inc and Lightspeed were up 2.2% to 7.9% each.

Seven of 10 TSX sectors were ​in the ‌green, with energy stocks rising 0.6% on higher oil prices as ‌investors remained wary of prospects for a breakthrough in Middle East peace talks.

Heavyweight mining stocks retreated 0.9% as gold prices declined amid persistent inflation concerns and increased expectations ‌of a US ‌rate hike.

Meanwhile, Perpetua Resources ⁠fell 1.5% after the antimony and gold miner said the ‌Export-Import Bank of the United States has approved a $2.9 billion loan to support the development of its Stibnite Gold Project in ⁠Idaho.

CAE fell 10.1% to the bottom of the index ​after the simulation and training provider released its fourth-quarter results.

Investors also await quarterly results from major banks set to be released next ⁠week.

Agencies