Wall Street rebounds, oil prices fall, ASX set to rise
Stan Choe
Updated ,first published
The U.S. stock market rose to records as oil prices eased and companies continued to report more profits than analysts expected at the start of the year.
The S&P 500 index increased by 0.8 percent, reaching its all-time high level set at the end of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 356 points, or 0.7 percent, and the Nasdaq composite broke its own record after gaining 1 percent.
The Australian share market is poised for a rally, with futures pointing to a gain of 42 points, or 0.5 per cent, at the open. The ASX fell 0.2 per cent on Tuesday after the Reserve Bank announced its third successive rate hike. The Australian dollar was trading at 71.83¢ at 6.42am AEST.
Stocks rose after oil prices gave back most of Monday’s big jumps. The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 4 percent to $109.87 a barrel after briefly hitting $115 a barrel on Monday, but is still well above its pre-war price of around $70 a barrel with Iran.
A ceasefire with Iran remains in effect, US military leaders said on Tuesday, even though Iran was blamed for attacks on US ally the United Arab Emirates the day before. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is trying to force open a path through the Strait of Hormuz that it hopes will allow oil tankers to resume shipments from the Persian Gulf and lower crude oil prices.
Even as the war continued, the US stock market remained remarkably resilient during its record-breaking run. This is largely due to the strong profits that US companies have reported for the first three months of 2026 despite the rise in oil prices since the end of February.
“This was a ‘why ask why’ market,” according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “You just have to go with it.”
Although many risks still weigh on the market, “investors are looking at earnings and how much companies are spending on AI data centers and other investments,” he said.
DuPont’s shares gained 8.4 percent after the chemical giant led a flurry of companies reporting better-than-expected profits in the latest quarter.
DuPont said its water technologies business felt some impact from the war due to logistical disruptions in the Middle East. But it still raised its forecasts for financial results for the full year.
Other gainers included American Electric Power Co., up 1.8 percent. and Cummins, up 2.8 percent after making more money than analysts expected in the first three months of the year.
Pinterest rose 6.9 percent after the online bulletin board beat Wall Street’s first-quarter sales and profit targets, and its monthly active users rose 11 percent to 631 million.
AB InBev likewise beat analysts’ profit forecasts, noting, among other factors, that its Corona, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra brands were growing outside its home markets. While the company’s shares traded in the USA increased by 8.7 percent, CEO Michel Doukeris said, “Hail to beer.”
These helped offset Palantir Technologies’ 6.9 percent decline in its latest quarter, even though it reported stronger results than analysts expected. Shares have struggled this year amid rising competition concerns, as have many software companies. Stocks are also on a big rise, more than doubling in each of the last three years.
Overall, the S&P 500 rose 58.47 points to 7,259.22 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 356.35 to 49,298.25, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 238.32 to 25,326.13.
In foreign stock markets, indices in Europe were mixed. The CAC 40 rose 1.1 percent in Paris, while the FTSE 100 fell 1.4 percent in London. While many Asian markets were closed for holidays, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.8 percent.
In the US bond market, Treasury yields decreased following the drop in oil prices and mixed reports on the US economy.
Growth of U.S. services businesses unexpectedly slowed last month, with some companies saying the war was slowing spending, a report said. A separate report said U.S. employers posted slightly more jobs at the end of March than economists expected; This is an encouraging signal for the job market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.42 percent from 4.45 percent at the end of Monday.
This rate is still well above the 3.97 percent level just before the war began. The increase has made mortgages and other types of loans more expensive for U.S. households and businesses.
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