NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks jumped early Wednesday, greeting US President Donald Trump’s announcement to extend the Iran ceasefire, along with a batch of mostly good corporate earnings.
Trump said late Tuesday he had pushed back the end of a two-week truce with Tehran following a request by Pakistani mediators and to give Iran’s “fractured” leadership time to formulate a proposal.
But oil prices pushed higher Wednesday after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said their naval forces had seized two container ships seeking to cross the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
About 35 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.8 percent at 49,552.28.
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The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent to 7,116.50, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.9 percent to 24,473.07.
“Markets are exuberant about the idea of a ceasefire continuing,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers, who views the earnings thus far as generally good, but not necessarily meriting the market’s outsized positive reaction.
“Right now, we’re not in a normal environment,” Sosnick said. “Anything that could plausibly be considered good news, or even okay news, will be taken as a positive.”
Among companies reporting results, Boeing gained 2.2 percent, GE Vernova surged 11.4 percent and United Airlines fell 3.6 percent.
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