Nasdaq jumps on tech strength, oil dips amid signs of Middle East peace progress
Market Overview and Key Drivers
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq advanced on Friday as investors monitored the fragile U.S.-Iran truce and weighed solid corporate earnings against downbeat forward guidance due to the war-related energy price shock.
Technology Sector Performance
Tech shares, buoyed by strong results from Intel, helped put the Nasdaq on top, while the S&P 500 was more modestly green. The Dow was in negative territory.
For the week, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq appeared set to log modest gains, while the blue-chip Dow was poised to register a decline from last Friday’s close. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq continued to hover near record highs.
“Intel just confirms the AI boom is alive and well, and this earnings season is off to a tremendous start,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha.
Geopolitical Developments and Oil Prices
Middle East Peace Talks
Peace talks between the United States and Iran could resume shortly in Pakistan, where Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was due to arrive Friday night, according to Pakistani sources.
Additionally, the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire was extended by three weeks following a high-level meeting at the White House, according to U.S. President Donald Trump.
“There’s optimism that talks are going to restart soon,” Detrick added. “With the extreme weakness we’ve seen from defense stocks the last two weeks, the market might be saying there could be some type of major peace deal on the horizon, which clearly is a net positive.”
Oil Market Reaction
Oil prices dipped as optimism over potential U.S.-Iran peace talks offset supply concerns.
U.S. crude fell 1.51% to settle at $94.40 per barrel, while Brent settled at $105.33 per barrel, down 0.25% on the day.
Corporate Earnings and Guidance
Strong Earnings Amid Cautious Outlook
SOLID CORPORATE EARNINGS MARRED BY DOUR GUIDANCE
First-quarter reporting season has hit full stride, with 139 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 81% have beaten earnings estimates. Analysts now see aggregate year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 16.1%, up from the 14.4% growth projected at the beginning of the quarter, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.
But on analyst conference calls, CEOs are increasingly providing downbeat guidance due to spiking fuel costs resulting from the war on Iran. Consumer products company Procter & Gamble warned on its Friday earnings call that it expects a roughly $1 billion hit to its fiscal 2027 profit because of the war-related energy price shock.
Upcoming Earnings Reports
Next week, a spate of high-profile earnings is on the docket, including tech and tech-adjacent megacaps Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta Platforms. Oil supermajors Exxon Mobil and Chevron are slated to report next Friday.
“There’s some very big names set to report next week,” Detrick said. “We’re optimistic we’re going to continue to see solid earnings, just like we have had so far this earnings season.”
Global Market Performance
Major U.S. Indexes
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 120.07 points, or 0.24%, to 49,190.25, the S&P 500 rose 50.33 points, or 0.71%, to 7,158.80 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 374.31 points, or 1.53%, to 24,812.03.
International Markets
European shares closed lower, dipping to more than a two-week low and logging a weekly decline of 2.5% as investors worried about energy supply disruption by the Middle East conflict.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 4.80 points, or 0.45%, to 1,072.11.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.58%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 12.54 points, or 0.51%.
Emerging market stocks rose 12.65 points, or 0.79%, to 1,611.96. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 0.82%, to 825.80, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 575.95 points, or 0.97%, to 59,716.18.
Currency and Commodity Markets
Currency Movements
The dollar dipped but remained on pace for a weekly gain as war uncertainty kept investors on edge.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.3% to 98.53, with the euro up 0.29% at $1.1718.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.2% to 159.39.
Cryptocurrency Prices
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.43% to $77,588.59. Ethereum declined 0.34% to $2,318.56.
Bond Market
U.S. benchmark Treasury yields dipped on hopes that U.S.-Iran peace talks could take place over the weekend, bolstering confidence that the war could be close to ending.
The yield on U.S. 10-year notes fell 0.9 basis points to 4.314%, from 4.323% late on Thursday.
The 30-year bond yield rose 0.4 basis points to 4.9224% from 4.918% late on Thursday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 4.7 basis points to 3.778%, from 3.825% late on Thursday.
Gold Market
Gold advanced but remained on track for its first weekly loss in five weeks as war-related inflation worries persisted.
Spot gold rose 0.58% to $4,719.31 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.36% to $4,722.20 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Rae Wee in Singapore; Editing by Nia Williams and Nick Zieminski)