U.S. stocks rebounded Monday after recovering the last of losses tied to the U.S.-Iran war, with trading sentiment shifting between lingering concerns over the conflict and the hope that the global economy could still avoid a worst-case scenario. The market’s rebound tracked the same basic theme across assets: investors watched signals that a broader ceasefire might hold while weighing fresh pressure on oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz.
The day’s rally put major indexes back near where they were before the late-February U.S. and Israel attacks on Iran. The S&P 500 rose 1% and closed at 6,886.24, which was back to its level before the attacks, only 1.3% below its all-time high set earlier this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 301.68 points, or 0.6%, to finish at 48,218.25, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2% to end at 23,183.74.
Oil moved in the same direction as stocks, but with a more visible link to weekend diplomacy and shipping risks. Even though ceasefire talks over the weekend failed to end the war, prices pared some of their earlier leaps as Monday progressed. Markets had been “pinballing” between the possibility that the war could last a long time and hopes for a resolution that could benefit all parties through a freer flow of crude oil.
After the weekend talks failed, President Donald Trump announced a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, raising pressure on Iran by trying to prevent it from earning revenue from selling oil. The narrow waterway is a key conduit for oil produced in the Persian Gulf region reaching customers worldwide, and the announcement intensified worries about how much crude could be diverted or withheld from global markets.
Iran responded by threatening “all ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.” After that development, the price for Brent crude—the international benchmark—rose 4.4% to settle at $99.36, a level still well above roughly $70 per barrel before the war. Brent had at times touched a peak around $119 amid earlier highs in war-related fears and later pulled back from nearly $104 earlier Monday morning.
Even with the oil market’s volatility, some investors took encouragement from the fact that the two sides were still talking and that a broader ceasefire appeared to be holding “for now,” according to Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. Outside the Oval Office, Trump suggested Monday that the United States was still willing to engage with Iran, saying, “I can tell you that we’ve been called by the other side.”
Alongside the diplomacy-driven watch on energy, Wall Street also focused on the beginning of earnings reporting season. Large U.S. companies started telling investors how much money they made during the first three months of the year, and the expectation was that stronger results could help offset worries about the Strait of Hormuz over the longer term, when stock prices tend to follow corporate profits.
Goldman Sachs reported a profit of $5.63 billion for the quarter, more than investors expected, but some analysts pointed to underlying issues such as lower revenue from trading fixed income, commodities and currencies. Goldman Sachs’ shares fell 1.9% after the results. Analysts said big banks would follow later this week, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, along with other major companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Netflix and PepsiCo.
Trading also reflected index and company-specific momentum, including Sandisk’s 11.8% jump after it was set to replace Atlassian Corporation in the Nasdaq 100 index before trading begins April 20. That change is expected to place Sandisk into index-tracking funds such as Invesco’s QQQ, which the report said controls nearly $395 billion in investments. Oracle was another standout in the S&P 500, rising 12.7% to recoup some of its recent losses after worries about spending too much on artificial-intelligence capabilities.
Software and tech names also rebounded after weeks of pressure tied to different concerns about AI, including fears that some businesses could become obsolete. ServiceNow rose 7.3% and brought its year-to-date loss to less than 42%, while AppLovin climbed 6.7% to reduce its 2026 loss to 38%.
In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked lower as oil receded from earlier morning highs, with the 10-year Treasury yield falling to 4.29% from 4.31% late Friday. That shift was seen as potentially offering some relief for housing and mortgage rates as oil-related inflation concerns had helped push yields higher since the war began; a report Monday also said sales of previously occupied homes were weaker in March than economists expected.
Markets abroad were mixed. Indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia, including Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which dropped 0.9%, and South Korea’s Kospi, which fell 0.9% for two of the world’s larger losses. The report credited AP journalists Yuri Kageyama, Matt Ott and Mayuko Ono for contributing to the reporting.