On the 15th (U.S. Eastern time), the three major U.S. stock indexes in New York closed higher on news that the United States and Iran reached a cease-fire deal.
On the New York stock market that day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 468.77 points (0.92%) from the previous session to finish at 51,671.03. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 rose 122.83 points (1.65%) to 7,554.29, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 795.10 points (3.07%) to 26,683.94.
With the day's gains, the Dow set a new record high.
The market reacted to news that the two countries signed a cease-fire memorandum of understanding (MOU). U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, and Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf were said to have signed the MOU electronically the day before when they released the cease-fire agreement.
The news led to a drop in global oil prices. Brent futures fell 4.9% from the previous session to $83.2 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell 4.8% to $80.75 a barrel. It was the lowest level in three months since Mar. 10, the early days of the Iran war.
U.S. Government Bonds yields also fell as inflation concerns eased, with the two-year note, which is tied to the benchmark rate, trading at 4.06%, down 0.02 percentage point. As expectations for rate hikes waned, the dollar weakened. The dollar index, which measures the U.S. dollar against six major currency peers, fell more than 0.13% to 99.36.
Gains were led by artificial intelligence (AI) chip-related stocks that had recently pulled back. Memory chipmaker Micron jumped 10.84%, and memory names saw big gains including Western Digital (16.1%), SanDisk (6.45%), and Seagate (9.43%). Nvidia, the bellwether AI chip stock, also rose 3.54%.
SpaceX, the space and aviation company that went public on the 12th, soared 19.3% on its first trading day, pushing its market capitalization past $2 trillion, and jumped another 19.6% that day. Its two-day post-listing gain reached 43%. However, SpaceX is not yet included in the three major New York stock indexes.