Wall Street ends higher as US, Iran attacks ease

NEW YORK: US stocks ended sharply higher on Monday, with the Dow hitting a record closing high, as weekend hostilities between the United States and Iran eased and as major technology-related shares rose following recent selling.

Iranian and US negotiating teams were due in Doha this week, but Iran said no meeting had been scheduled as weekend missile fire from both sides tested the interim ceasefire to end the four-month-old war.

The US and Iran on June 17 signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the conflict. Under the document, both sides agreed to cease hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“The fact that we had hostilities between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend really didn’t have a negative effect on the market,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

“The market is looking forward and preparing for earnings season, which is not that far away,” he said.

Most S&P 500 companies are set to begin reporting second-quarter results after mid-July.

Communications services led gains among S&P 500 sectors. Shares of Comcast rose 4.5% after the media and cable provider said it plans to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies through a tax-free spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky.

SpaceX jumped 7.2% after Nasdaq said the newly listed company will be added to the Nasdaq 100 index on July 7. Google parent Alphabet closed up 4.8% as it kicked off its first day as a Dow component.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 306.63 points, or 0.59%, to 52,182.74, the S&P 500 gained 86.41 points, or 1.18%, to 7,440.43 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 522.53 points, or 2.07%, to 25,820.14.

Quarter-end “window dressing”, where investors buy certain stocks to make their portfolios look better, may also have helped the market, Cardillo said.

Concerns about AI spending had hit shares of artificial intelligence-related companies recently, including semiconductors and many of the Magnificent Seven group of megacap stocks. On Monday, the information technology index gained 1.7%.

RBC Capital Markets cited earnings strength and a supportive macro backdrop as it raised its 12-month target for the S&P 500 index to 8,150 from 7,900.

Investors are also eager to see the next monthly US jobs report, due on Thursday.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.54-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange. There were 272 new highs and 114 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 3,017 stocks rose and 1,919 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.57-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded no new highs and no new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 20.15 billion shares, compared with the 23.50 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.