Heading into the third day of the fragile cease-fire in the U.S. war with Iran, and looking to the first face-to-face talks between Washington and Tehran this weekend, one thing appears reasonably clear: financial markets seem far more invested in the truce than the participants.
Reports suggest Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade blows in Lebanon, and President Donald Trump had scolded Iran for planning tolls for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important energy conduit, which remains effectively closed. Saudi Arabia has also given details of damage caused by recent drone attacks on oil installations.
Markets, however, have paid little attention to the fraying edges of the deal, reached late Tuesday through mediation by Pakistan, and instead have focused on the fact that talk has replaced missile strikes in the weekslong conflict.
That has been more than enough to ignite the longest winning streak for the S&P 500 since last October, with the benchmark booking a seventh consecutive gain on Thursday. The index is also heading for its biggest weekly gain since last year's recovery from Trump's Liberation Day tariffs announcement.
Sterner tests await, of course, with the fate of weekend talks likely to define the market's next moves, particularly if oil prices react more dramatically to the strait's continuing closure.
Growth and inflation data continue to suggest accumulating damage to the world economy as a result of the conflict, with central bank reactions already complicated by their differing mandates.
Moreover, corporate earnings season looms with key outlooks from tech sector giants, and the returns they expect from their billions in AI investments, likely to take center stage.
But investors are heading into the thick of April trading, traditionally one of the best months of the year for stocks, on a much firmer footing.
Now all they need is the facts on the ground in the Gulf region to justify their optimism.
-- Martin Baccardax
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Andy Jassy Says Amazon's AI Spending Won't Slow Down
Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy dismissed worries about a possible bubble in artificial intelligence, where tech companies have been spending big. He told the company's shareholders they shouldn't expect a slowdown in Amazon's AI investments, projected to be $200 billion this year.
-- Jassy used his annual letter to shareholders to answer whether he thinks
AI technology is over-hyped and in a bubble and if the margins and return
on invested capital will be appealing. "My strong conviction, at least
for Amazon, is that the answers are no, no, and yes," he said.
-- Jassy said revenue is already flooding in, pointing to Amazon Web
Services' AI revenue run rate of more than $15 billion in the first
quarter of this year. He said Amazon's in-house chip business is on track
to generate more than $20 billion in annual revenue.
-- Jassy said if the chip unit were a stand-alone business and sold the
processors to third parties, it could generate annual sales of $50
billion. That would be similar to Broadcom's AI chip business. Broadcom
has demonstrated its custom chips can power leading AI models through its
work with Google.
-- Amazon looks to be lining up a similar arrangement with ChatGPT developer
OpenAI, to which it pledged a $50 billion investment in exchange for
OpenAI buying billions worth of Amazon's AI chips. Jassy said chips could
be Amazon's new pillar and it is investing to be a meaningful leader.
What's Next: Jassy predicts Amazon could sell racks of its chips to third parties in the future. Rack-level sales to third parties would bring Amazon into direct competition with leading AI chip makers Nvidia and Broadcom. Amazon is still a big customer for Nvidia chips.
-- Adam Clark and Janet H. Cho
CoreWeave Expands Cloud Deal for Meta Platforms. What It Means.
CoreWeave's expanded deal with Meta Platforms, valued around $21 billion, will provide the Facebook parent with artificial-intelligence cloud capacity through Dec. 20, 2032. The deal reflects an industrywide shift from training AI models to inference, or using AI to solve problems and execute tasks.
-- As part of the deal, Meta also will exercise a previous option for
additional capacity, which was included in the pair's cloud agreement
last year. CoreWeave will deploy Meta's dedicated capacity across
multiple locations, some of which will include Nvidia's new Vera Rubin AI
platforms.
-- CoreWeave announced a couple of financing moves, too. It plans a private
offering of $3 billion in convertible senior notes due in 2032, plus an
option for another $450 million. It will use some of the proceeds for
hedging instruments used to reduce potential stock dilution from
converted bonds.
-- It also has a private offering of $1.25 billion in senior notes due in
2031 for general corporate purposes, including debt repayment.
CoreWeave's $30 billion in debt and lease liabilities at the end of 2025
-- part of its massive AI infrastructure buildout -- has been a focus for
investors.
-- One big winner from the expanded CoreWeave-Meta deal might be Bloom
Energy, says Evercore analyst Nicholas Amicucci. The length of the
contract and the size of the project will require 800 volts of direct
current, a new configuration designed to power data centers.
What's Next: Amicucci reasons that the demand for more power only enhances the rationale for Bloom's fuel cells. Power stocks in general could see a boost from the CoreWeave-Meta deal and words from Amazon's Jassy that AI spending on data centers would continue.
-- Nate Wolf and Ben Levisohn
Tesla Could Be Cooking Up Another EV, Report Says
While he's in the middle of planning a massive IPO for his SpaceX aerospace company, Tesla CEO Elon Musk may be cooking up plans for an all-new electric vehicle, something that could help energize Tesla's stagnant EV sales. A general slump in car sales in China adds to the pressure.
-- Reuters reported that Musk's car maker is considering a smaller SUV that
isn't a variant of the Model Y, citing people familiar with the matter.
Tesla didn't respond to a request for comment, but talk of a new,
lower-priced EV that would expand Tesla's addressable market stretches
back at least to early 2023.
-- Tesla hasn't introduced an all-new passenger vehicle since the Model Y in
2020. Instead, it opted to develop the two-seat Cybercab robo-taxi and
started selling lower-priced "standard" versions of the Model 3 and Model
Y, which have fewer features than premium models.
-- Investors have been cautious with Tesla stock after seeing slow progress
on robo-taxis, higher investment spending, and stagnant sales. For the
industry in the Chinese market, car sales dropped 15% in March, the sixth
consecutive month of year over year declines, according to the China
Passenger Car Association.
-- China is the largest market for new cars and new EVs. Electrified cars
accounted for more than half of all new car sales. Tesla sold almost
86,000 cars from its Chinese plant in March. It exported almost 30,000
vehicles.
What's Next: Rival Chinese EV maker NIO unveiled plans for its new vehicle, the ES9 SUV, which will replace its smaller ES8 SUV. Deliveries should start in June. New models can help build on NIO's momentum. Its EV sales over the past 12 months are up 57% from the year before.
-- Al Root
A SpaceX-Tesla Merger May Be Musk's Endgame After IPO
SpaceX is set to take the case for its initial public offering to Wall Street in June. It could be the biggest IPO ever but it also might just be the prelude for a record-breaking merger.
-- The company, founded by Elon Musk, is currently worth $1.25 trillion
after its recent merger with another of the billionaire's companies, xAI.
In its IPO, SpaceX is expected to aim for a valuation of up to $2
trillion, or roughly 75 times estimated 2026 sales, raising between $40
billion and $80 billion.
-- SpaceX handles more than half of the world's orbital launches, enjoying a
cost advantage over rivals due to its reusable rockets. It also houses
Starlink, a profitable space-based broadband product, which had more than
nine million subscribers at the end of 2025.
-- Analysts think Musk might be aiming to eventually merge SpaceX with his
electric-vehicle maker Tesla to create an industrial conglomerate
spanning rockets, AI, robotics and EVs. Such a combination could be worth
more than $3.5 trillion.
-- An eventual SpaceX-Tesla merger would likely hinge on Musk's ability to
get retail investors on side. Individual investors hold about 50% of
Tesla's shares available for trading, while SpaceX plans to allocate up
to 30% of the IPO to retail shareholders.
What's Next: The initial test of whether a joint SpaceX-Tesla venture can work out will come with Musk's ambitious Terafab project. The billionaire businessman has said the Texas facility, unveiled in March, will eventually produce chips with a computing power capacity of more than one terawatt per year for both companies.
-- Al Root and Adam Clark
Superyacht Sales Are Sailing Back From a Postpandemic Slowdown
Superyacht sales are rebounding, with buyers favoring larger, highly customized models. The business is changing along with increasing levels of wealth, a rising generation of new owners, and demand for sustainable vessels. But changing global trade patterns are also injecting uncertainty.
-- The superyacht world includes more than 6,200 operating vessels that are
at least 30 meters long, up from about 4,550 a decade ago. Superyacht
sales peaked in 2021 at 497 preowned vessels and 319 new ones, but then
sales fell into a brief slump.
-- That is changing. Last year, 360 preowned superyachts of at least 30
meters (nearly 100 feet) long sold for $6.44 billion, up 36% in value
from a year earlier, Fraser Yachts reported. Another 211 new ones were
built, most at a more modest 30-40 meters but 19 were over 80 meters.
-- Construction and sales of superyachts generate about $13.8 billion
annually in economic value, according to the Superyacht Builders
Association. One-quarter of the world's yacht owners live in North
America, but most vessels are made in Europe, Fraser said. Shipbuilders
are building more superyachts on speculation.
-- Breakthrough, a 119-meter (390-foot) yacht that runs on more-sustainable
hydrogen fuel cells, sold for about $793 million last year, the most of
any new yacht on the market, Fraser said. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos'
410-foot Koru is estimated to have cost $500 million.
What's Next: Among new vessels, the trend is toward "larger, highly bespoke builds," Fraser said. Currently, 26 vessels over 100 meters are being built, according to the Global Order Book.
-- Abby Schultz and Janet H. Cho
-- Newsletter edited by Liz Moyer, Patrick O'Donnell, Rupert Steiner
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 10, 2026 06:57 ET (10:57 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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