{"id":597671,"date":"2026-04-21T14:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/597671\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:06:09","slug":"stocks-and-oil-prices-hold-relatively-steady-in-the-countdown-to-us-iran-ceasefire-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/597671\/","title":{"rendered":"Stocks and oil prices hold relatively steady in the countdown to US-Iran ceasefire talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 U.S. stocks are holding firm Tuesday after UnitedHealth Group and other big companies showed they\u2019re making even bigger profits than analysts expected. Oil prices, meanwhile, remained relatively stable as optimism seems to be sticking in financial markets that the United States and Iran will avoid a worst-case scenario for the economy, even with their war ongoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The S&P 500 added 0.2%, coming off just its second drop in 14 days<\/a>, and is close to another all-time high<\/a>. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 397 points, or 0.8%, as of 9:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.<\/p>\n

UnitedHealth helped lead the market with a jump of 9.4% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the beginning of the year than analysts expected. It also raised its forecast for profit over the full year of 2026.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s big because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term. It\u2019s a double-plus for investors when companies not only top earnings estimates but also forecast even better growth ahead.<\/p>\n

Quest Diagnostics rose 5.8% after it likewise joined the fattening list of companies topping expectations for profit and revenue during the latest quarter. It also raised its forecast for profit for the full year.<\/p>\n

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\"Traders<\/p>\n

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\"Protesters<\/p>\n

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They helped offset an 8.3% drop for Tractor Supply, whose profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of expectations. <\/p>\n

Other signals are also indicating the U.S. economy may be doing OK despite the sharp up-and-down swings for oil prices because of the war with Iran. A report on Tuesday morning showed that U.S. retailers made more money in March<\/a>, the first full month of the war, than analysts expected. <\/p>\n

Growth was even relatively stable for retail sales when not including those from gasoline stations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s become cliched to say that the economic hit will depend on the duration of the Middle East conflict, but that clich\u00e9 does ring true,\u201d according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. <\/p>\n

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, dipped 0.7% to $94.78 ahead of the scheduled expiration early Wednesday, Tehran time, of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement. Both sides are continuing to talk tough, but hope remains after both have signaled they will hold a new round of ceasefire talks in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Much of the tension in financial markets has focused on what will happen to the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran\u2019s coast that oil tankers use to exit the Persian Gulf. A long-term closure would keep crude oil pent up in the gulf and away from customers worldwide. <\/p>\n

The price of a barrel of Brent oil has gone from roughly $70 before the war to $119 at times as worries have risen and fallen about a long-term closure for the strait.<\/p>\n

On Wall Street, Apple slipped 0.6% after Tim Cook said he\u2019ll step down as CEO<\/a> on Sept. 1 and become the iPhone maker\u2019s executive chairman. He\u2019s handing control over to John Ternus<\/a>, a company veteran who rose through the iPhone maker\u2019s hardware engineering ranks.<\/p>\n

Amazon rose 1.4% after Anthropic said it signed a new agreement and is committing more than $100 billion over the next 10 years to AWS technologies to train and run its Claude chatbot.<\/p>\n

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. South Korea\u2019s Kospi rose 2.7% for one of the world\u2019s biggest moves.<\/p>\n

In the bond market, Treasury yields edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.27% from 4.26% late Monday.<\/p>\n

Kevin Warsh<\/a>, President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, will be speaking on Capitol Hill later Tuesday. He\u2019ll face a tightrope walk, as investors will want to see if he would keep the Fed\u2019s independence from political meddling even though Trump has been pushing hard for lower interest rates.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 U.S. stocks are holding firm Tuesday after UnitedHealth Group and other big companies showed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7589,232237,12300,15959,517,7908,28,12,8876,69620,7905,793,851,801,1570,228242,154868,45588,139727,260424,11158,4532,18006,18187,964,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-597671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","10":"tag-amazon-com","11":"tag-anthropic-pbc","12":"tag-apple","13":"tag-brian-jacobsen","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-economic-indicators","17":"tag-energy-markets","18":"tag-financial-markets","19":"tag-general-news","20":"tag-inc","21":"tag-iran","22":"tag-iran-government","23":"tag-iran-war","24":"tag-john-ternus","25":"tag-kevin-warsh","26":"tag-oil-and-gas-industry","27":"tag-quest-diagnostics","28":"tag-stocks-and-bonds","29":"tag-tim-cook","30":"tag-tractor-supply-co","31":"tag-unitedhealth-group","32":"tag-war-and-unrest","33":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}