With Middle East tensions continuing for a sixth day, the U.S. stock market closed higher on speculation of behind-the-scenes contacts between the United States and Iran.
On the 4th (local time) in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 48,739.41, up 238.14 points, or 0.49%, from the previous session. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 was 6,869.50, down 52.87 points, or 0.78%, from the previous session, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed at 22,807.48, up 290.79 points, or 1.29%.
Large-cap tech shares in particular led the gains. Tesla (3.44%) and Amazon (3.95%) both rose more than 3%, and Nvidia (1.66%) and Meta (1.93%) also extended gains.
Earlier, a New York Times (NYT) report said Iran's intelligence authorities proposed negotiations to end the conflict to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through a third country, which was seen as reviving risk appetite on hopes the conflict could end early.
Scott Wren, a strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said, "While the risk of further escalation still exists, the market's increase in risk aversion is likely to be short-lived."
In addition, a sharp increase in U.S. private employment beyond market expectations added momentum to the stock rally.
According to data compiled by Automatic Data Processing (ADP), U.S. private-sector employment in February increased by 63,000 from the previous month. That beat the 48,000 forecast compiled by Dow Jones and marked the largest increase since July 2025.