By Sam Goldfarb
Surging tech stocks carried the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite to new records on Wednesday, a milestone in major indexes' rebound from war-fueled losses.
Buoyed by big gains from the likes of Microsoft and Tesla, the S&P 500 rose 0.8% to 7022.95 -- rallying into the close to finish comfortably above its previous all-time high set in January.
In the 53 trading days between those records, stocks were slowed first by worries about potential economic disruptions caused by artificial-intelligence advances and then by the outbreak of war in the Middle East, which spurred a rapid rise in energy prices.
More recently, though, investors have grown increasingly confident that the U.S. and Iran will eventually reach a peace deal. That, they hope, will allow the Strait of Hormuz to reopen, enabling oil and other commodities to again flow freely through the waterway.
"The market is continuing to lean in to the notion of some sort of end to this conflict, whatever that looks like," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment officer at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.
It was a relatively quiet day in headlines from the Middle East, with no major military or diplomatic developments to spur broad market moves in one direction or another. Regional mediators were still pushing to extend the cease-fire between the U.S. and Iran, but the two countries hadn't announced a date or venue for a second round of talks.
Oil prices flitted between small gains and losses, with U.S. crude futures ending the day up less than 0.1% at $91.29 a barrel. Treasury yields ticked higher, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.1%, or 72 points, weighed down by a 3% decline in Caterpillar shares.
Technology stocks were the big outperformers. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.6% for its 11th straight day of gains -- closing at its first record since October and extending its longest winning streak since 2021. Chip giant Nvidia also climbed for its 11th straight session, ticking up 1.2%.
Software stocks performed particularly well, continuing to bounce back from steep declines last week. Among those were Intuit, which climbed 6.2%, and ServiceNow, which jumped 7.3%.
Financial stocks also advanced, buoyed by another batch of solid bank earnings.
Shares of Bank of America rose 1.8% after the lender reported a 17% increase in profit from the year earlier quarter. CEO Brian Moynihan touted "solid consumer spending," adding to a chorus of big lenders seeing resilience in the U.S. economy.
PNC Financial edged up 0.4% after posting higher-than-expected earnings. The Pittsburgh-based bank said that it had $33 billion in exposure to private business lenders, including private-credit funds -- a focus of investor anxiety in recent months.
Executives, though, said on a call with analysts that the bank's exposure to nonbank loans is low risk, and that they expect no losses going forward.
Write to Sam Goldfarb at sam.goldfarb@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 15, 2026 16:44 ET (20:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
