Stocks rally worldwide as oil prices ease on hopes for a possible end to
the Iran war
[April 02, 2026] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rushed higher worldwide, and oil prices eased
Wednesday as hopes built that the war with Iran could end soon. That’s
even though some of the signals investors saw as hopeful are already
under dispute, and several earlier bouts of optimism in financial
markets quickly got undercut by continued, fierce fighting in the war.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and added to its leap from the day before, which
was its best since last spring. That followed even bigger gains for
stock markets across Europe and Asia, including an 8.4% surge in South
Korea, which were catching up to Wall Street’s rally from Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 224 points, or 0.5%, and the
Nasdaq composite rallied 1.2%.
Oil prices also fell back toward $100 per barrel after President Donald
Trump said late Tuesday that the U.S. military could end its offensive
in two to three weeks.
That added to optimism following a couple tenuous signals of hope from
earlier Tuesday that Wall Street latched onto, including a news report
quoting Iran’s president as saying that it has “the necessary will to
end the war” as long as certain requirements are met, including
“guarantees to prevent a recurrence of aggression.”
The worry on Wall Street has been that the war may last a long time and
keep oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf out of global markets,
which could create a brutal blast of inflation.
But hope has been quick to reverse to doubt on Wall Street, triggering
manic swings back and forth for financial markets since the war with
Iran began. Trump has also made statements that lifted markets, only to
see the gains quickly disappear after increasing his military threats.
Shortly before Wall Street began trading on Wednesday, Trump claimed in
a post on his social media network that Iran “has just asked the United
States of America for a CEASEFIRE!”
“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until
then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the
Stone Ages!!!”
But Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, quickly called
that claim “false and baseless,” according to a report on Iranian state
television.
Oil prices also remain high, even if they’ve eased recently. The price
for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was sitting
around $101 following its declines, which is still up from roughly $70
before the war began.
U.S. gasoline prices rose again overnight to a national average of $4.06
per gallon, according to the auto club AAA.
Iran, meanwhile, hit an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait’s
airport on Wednesday while airstrikes battered Tehran as the fighting
continued. Iran also continues to hold a grip on the Strait of Hormuz,
where a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes during peacetime.
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Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in
New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
 “De-escalation hopes have given
markets a lift, but we think the effects of the war would, in many
cases, persist even if the war did end soon,” Thomas Mathews, head
of markets, Asia Pacific at Capital Economics, said in a research
note Wednesday.
“It’s worth thinking through how markets might fare if the war were
to end ‘very soon,’” he wrote. “Do markets have further to recover
if sentiment continues to improve? The answer is almost certainly
yes.”
The White House said Trump will deliver a public address Wednesday
evening on the Iran war.
On Wall Street, three out of every five stocks within the S&P 500
rose as Big Tech powered the move higher. Gains of 3.4% for Alphabet
and 0.8% for Nvidia were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P
500.
Eli Lilly rallied 3.8% after U.S. regulators approved its GLP-1 pill
for weight loss.
Such gains have pulled the S&P 500, which sits at the heart of many
401(k) accounts, back to within 5.8% of its all-time high set early
this year. Just on Monday, the index briefly neared a 10% drop from
its record, a steep-enough fall that professional investors have a
name for it: a “correction.”
Nike sank 15.5% even though it reported a stronger profit for the
latest quarter than expected. Analysts said it gave some lackluster
financial forecasts.
Oil companies also fell with the price of crude. Exxon Mobil slumped
5.2%, and Chevron dropped 4.6%.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 46.80 points to 6,575.32. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 224.23 to 46,565.74, and the Nasdaq
composite climbed 250.32 to 21,840.95.
In stock markets abroad, indexes leaped more than 2% in France and
Germany. Asian markets had even bigger gains.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 5.2% after a survey showed business
sentiment for major Japanese manufacturers improved despite worries
about the Iran war.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a
report said U.S. retailers made more money in February than
economists expected. A separate report said U.S. manufacturing
growth last month was slightly faster than economists expected.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.32% from 4.30% late Tuesday.
___
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
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