Stocks soared on Tuesday following strong earnings reports and remarks from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicating the U.S. could soon reach a new peace deal with Iran.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed over 1,000 points, or 1.87 percent. The Nasdaq Composite rose 2.3 percent. The S&P 500 rose 1.7 percent to a record high. The Russell 2000 small company index also rose 1.7 percent.
Shares of Caterpillar, which reported better-than-expected earnings, rose by nearly 20 percent before retreating to around a 10 percent gain, making it the best-performing Dow stock. Shares of Amazon were down two percent, the biggest Dow decliner.
“We are in talks with the Iranians and I think there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the Strait and move towards a more normalized position in this conflict,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC.
Shares of Palantir, whose second quarter results soared past even the most optimistic forecasts, were up by nearly 30 percent.
Crude oil prices fell sharply. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, fell by around five percent to $79.61. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, fell 5.2 percent to $76.20.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury retreated 0.057 percentage point to 4.627 percent. The yield on 2-year Treasurys declined by a similar amount to 4.196 percent.
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