By Martin Baccardax
U.S. stocks were poised Wednesday for another set of solid early gains, and likely fresh records, as President Donald Trump signaled a near-term end to the war with Iran and tech stocks continued to impress in markets around the world.
The S&P 500 booked another record high on Tuesday, powering more than 0.8% higher on the session to close just shy of 7260, a level that would indicate a 14.5% advance from the end of March lows. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite jumped nearly 260 points, ending the session at a fresh record peak and taking its gain this year past 9%, the best gains from Jan. 1 to May 5 in three years.
More advances were in the cards for Wednesday, as well, after a better- than-expected set of quarterly earnings from artificial-intelligence chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, which looks set to add around $100 billion to the market cap of the Nvidia challenger, and a robust revenue forecast from Super Micro Computer.
AMD boosted its near-term outlook and topped Wall Street forecasts for quartelry earnings and revenue after the close of trading Tuesday.
"AI spending is moving higher, and while the stock had already moved with it, the stronger-than-expected outlook shows AMD is starting to outperform what was already priced in," said Jake Behan, head of capital markets at Direxion.
AMD shares jumped nearly 19% in premarket trading, indicating an opening bell price of $420.15, an all-time high that would value the company at more nearly $700 billion.
Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, topped $1 trillion in market value in overnight trading in Seoul as the chip maker continues to ride that AI investment wave. The group is now worth more than Berkshire Hathaway, and is just a few ticks shy of topping retail giant Walmart.
President Trump's effort to de-escalate the U.S. war with Iran, which is now well into its ninth week, also was adding optimism to the stock market's record run, which has seen the S&P 500 rise nearly 15% since the end of March.
Trump spoke of "great progress" in talk with Iran, and said he would pause a U.S. naval effort to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz "to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed."
Axios, meanwhile, reported that the U.S. and Iran were nearing an agreement to end the conflict, with a "memorandum of understanding" that would start a 30-day period of negotiations toward a wider peace agreement.
Global oil prices retreated sharply as a result, with Brent crude contracts for July delivery slumping nearly 6% to $103.29 a barrel, their lowest levels of the month, and WTI crude falling 5.8% to $96.43 a barrel.
"The prospect of a permanent peace deal remains highly uncertain, however, and oil looks set to remain very volatile," said ING's global head of markets, Chris Turner. "Here, the focus in energy markets is whether a tipping point is reached over the next month."
"Yet this window of optimism on a peace deal has allowed money to flow back into equities, driven by the underlying conviction that the tech sector AI buildout, will endure," he added.
Currency markets also were in focus amid reports of a fresh round of intervention from Japan's Ministry of Finance, which lifted the yen to as high as 155.04 against the U.S. dollar in the final day of Japan's annual spring holidays.
"The intervention took the exchange rate quickly lower to as low as 155.05 before two-way price action developed in a fast, volatile market, " Saxo Bank strategists wrote on Wednesday. "Less than 30 minutes after the intervention move reached its low, the yen traded above 156.30.
Write to Martin Baccardax at martin.baccardax@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 06, 2026 10:46 ET (14:46 GMT)
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