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Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
Seth Wenig\/AP<\/p>\n
James Conti works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
Seth Wenig\/AP<\/p>\n
A currency trader reacts near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ahn Young-joon\/AP<\/p>\n
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ahn Young-joon\/AP<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Stocks are rushing higher worldwide, and oil prices are easing Wednesday as hopes build 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.<\/p>\n
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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\u2019s rally from Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 232 points, or 0.5%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s president as saying that it has \u201cthe necessary will to end the war\u201d as long as certain requirements are met, including \u201cguarantees to prevent a recurrence of aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Shortly before Wall Street began trading on Wednesday, Trump claimed in a post on his social media network that Iran \u201chas just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe 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!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
But Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, quickly called that claim \u201cfalse and baseless,\u201d according to a report on Iranian state television.<\/p>\n
Oil prices also remain high, even if they\u2019ve eased recently. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was sitting just above $101 following its declines, which is still up from roughly $70 before the war began.<\/p>\n
U.S. gasoline prices rose again overnight to a national average of $4.06 per gallon, according to the auto club AAA.<\/p>\n
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Iran, meanwhile, hit an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait\u2019s 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\u2019s traded oil passes during peacetime.<\/p>\n
\u201cDe-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,\u201d Thomas Mathews, head of markets, Asia Pacific at Capital Economics, said in a research note Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s worth thinking through how markets might fare if the war were to end \u2018very soon,\u2019\u201d he wrote. \u201cDo markets have further to recover if sentiment continues to improve? The answer is almost certainly yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House said Trump will deliver a public address Wednesday evening on the Iran war.<\/p>\n
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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% for Alphabet and 0.7% for Nvidia were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.<\/p>\n
Eli Lilly rallied 3.9% after U.S. regulators approved its GLP-1 pill for weight loss.<\/p>\n
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 \u201ccorrection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nike sank 15% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts said it gave some lackluster financial forecasts.<\/p>\n
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Oil companies also fell with the price of crude, and Exxon Mobil slumped 4.9%.<\/p>\n
In stock markets abroad, indexes leaped more than 2% in France and Germany. Asian markets had even bigger gains.<\/p>\n
Tokyo\u2019s Nikkei 225 jumped 5.2% after a survey showed business sentiment for major Japanese manufacturers improved despite worries about the Iran war.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.32% from 4.30% late Tuesday.<\/p>\n
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.<\/p>\n
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