*Markets News, Jan. 15, 2026: Stocks Rise to Snap 2-Day Skid; Chip, Bank Shares Lead Gains; Oil Price Drops as Trump Lowers Iran Tensions*
$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$
Major stock indexes finished higher Thursday after two days of losses, while oil prices sank as President Donald Trump dialed down the threat of a U.S. military strike on Iran.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 closed up 0.6%, 0.3%, and 0.3%, respectively, with the Dow adding nearly 300 points.
Early Thursday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM), or TSMC, reported fourth-quarter profit increased 35% year-over-year. U.S.-listed shares of the world's largest contract chipmaker ended 4.5% higher, and those of Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker ASML (ASML)—which gets a lot of business from TSMC—jumped 5.4%.
The U.S. and Taiwan reached a trade agreement Thursday for the Asian nation's semiconductor and technology firms to invest at least $250 billion in production capacity on American soil, including chip factories. In exchange, the U.S. tariff rate on Taiwanese goods will not exceed 15%, according to the Commerce Department.
Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, sank about 5% to below $59 a barrel at 4 p.m. ET after President Donald Trump hinted yesterday that he could hold off on attacking Iran, something he had threatened earlier in the week.
The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences interest rates on a variety of commercial and consumer loans, traded above 4.17%, up from Wednesday's close below 4.14%, after U.S. weekly jobless claims came in at 198,000, below expectations of 215,000.
Yesterday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq, benchmark S&P 500, and blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average finished lower for a second straight session following the start of bank earnings season. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) stock has declined 5% the past two days after it reported fourth-quarter figures, and shares of its rivals Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), and Wells Fargo (WFC) fell sharply yesterday after they reported their own fourth-quarter results.
BlackRock (BLK), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Goldman Sachs (GS) shares advanced 5.9%, 5.8%, and 4.6%, respectively, after they reported Q4 results.
Shares of Nvidia (NVDA), the world's most valuable public company, rebounded 2.1% after slipping 1.4% Wednesday as the Trump administration said it must meet new security requirements before exporting of its H200 AI chips to China.
Gold futures slipped 0.6% to $4,610 an ounce after hitting their latest record high yesterday. Silver futures set a fresh record of $93.75 an ounce early Thursday and recently were up 0.4% to $91.75.
Bitcoin was trading around $95,100, down from the day's high of about $97,700. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.3% to 99.38.
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