New York Stock Exchange [123RF]
New York Stock Exchange [123RF]

Major US stock indexes hit all-time highs Tuesday as oil prices tumbled on reports of progress in negotiations between the United States and Iran.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 907.47 points, or 1.71 percent, at 54,085.88.

The S&P 500 rose 136.02 points, or 1.79 percent, to 7,736.52, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite gained 671.10 points, or 2.59 percent, to close at 26,584.99.

Both the Dow and the S&P 500 set new closing records on the day. For the S&P 500, it was the first all-time closing high since June 2 — when it finished at 7,609.78 — ending a roughly two-month drought.

Investor optimism grew after senior officials in the Donald Trump administration signaled that a deal on opening the Strait of Hormuz could come soon.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that "there has been progress in those negotiations, but we have not yet reached a final agreement," adding that he hoped a deal would come "very soon."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he believed an agreement to open the strait and move the dispute "into a more normal phase" could come "today or Thursday."

Oil prices tumbled on optimism over the negotiations. October-delivery Brent crude futures on the ICE exchange settled at $79.36 a barrel, down 5.3 percent from the previous session. September-delivery West Texas Intermediate futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 5.7 percent to $75.77 a barrel.

Technology shares led the Wall Street rally, helped in part by easing concerns over excessive AI investment.

Palantir, an AI-driven data analytics company, surged 29.45 percent after posting a second-quarter earnings beat and raising its sales outlook — its biggest single-day gain in more than two years, since February 2024.

Other major chipmakers also posted sharp gains: Micron rose 7.62 percent, SanDisk 10.97 percent, Marvell Technology 12.81 percent and Intel 10.84 percent.

SK Hynix's American depositary receipts surged 8.17 percent after Wall Street firms published bullish research reports recommending an overweight position on the stock.

Bank of America said SK Hynix is undervalued, citing robust orders from US technology companies, the chipmaker's leading position in the high-end memory chip market and continued expansion of AI infrastructure investment — factors it said point to "supercycle"-level earnings ahead.

Caterpillar, the construction equipment maker and a Dow component, rose 5.60 percent after raising its earnings outlook, citing a surge in demand driven by AI data center construction.


jiyun@heraldcorp.com