Home
+
Published : 25 Apr 2026, 09:32 AM
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched all-time closing highs on Friday as investors assessed signs of progress in US-Iran peace talks and weighed solid corporate earnings against downbeat forward guidance due to war-related energy price shocks.
Tech shares, buoyed by strong results from Intel, helped to lift the Nasdaq 1.6 percent, while the S&P 500's gain was more modest. The Dow closed in negative territory.
For the week, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq logged modest gains, while the blue-chip Dow registered a decline from last Friday's close.
"Intel just confirms the AI boom is alive and well, and this earnings season is off to a tremendous start," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Pakistan to discuss proposals to restart peace talks between the United States and Iran.
US President Donald Trump told Reuters that Iran plans to make an offer aimed at meeting US demands.
"There's optimism that talks are going to restart soon," Detrick added.
"With the extreme weakness we've seen from defense stocks the last two weeks, the market might be saying there could be some type of major peace deal on the horizon, which clearly is a net positive."
Oil prices dipped as optimism over potential US-Iran peace talks offset supply concerns, but were sharply higher on the week.
US crude CLc1 fell 1.51 percent to settle at $94.40 per barrel, while Brent LCOc1 settled at $105.33 per barrel, down 0.25 percent on the day.
Solid Corporate Earnings Marred By Dour Guidance
First-quarter reporting season has hit full stride, with 139 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported.
Of those, 81 percent have beaten earnings estimates.
Analysts now see aggregate year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 16.1 percent, up from the 14.4 percent growth projected at the beginning of the quarter, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.
But on analyst conference calls, CEOs are increasingly providing downbeat guidance due to spiking fuel costs resulting from the war with Iran.
Consumer products company Procter & Gamble warned on its Friday earnings call that it expects a roughly $1 billion hit to its fiscal 2027 profit because of the war-related surge in energy prices.
Several high-profile earnings are on the docket next week, including tech and tech-adjacent megacaps Amazon AMZN.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O, and Meta Platforms Oil supermajors Exxon Mobil and Chevron CVX.N are slated to report next Friday.
"There's some very big names set to report next week," Detrick said. "We're optimistic we're going to continue to see solid earnings, just like we have had so far this earnings season."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 79.61 points, or 0.16 percent, to 49,230.71, the S&P 500 .SPX rose 56.68 points, or 0.80 percent, to 7,165.08, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rose 398.09 points, or 1.63 percent, to 24,836.60.
European shares closed lower, dipping to a more than two-week low and logging a weekly decline of 2.5 percent as investors worried about the disruption of energy supplies by the Middle East conflict.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS rose 5.42 points, or 0.51 percent, to 1,072.73.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.58 percent, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 12.54 points, or 0.51 percent.
Emerging market stocks rose 12.86 points, or 0.80 percent, to 1,612.17. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 0.81 percent, at 825.78, while Japan's Nikkei rose 575.95 points, or 0.97 percent, to 59,716.18.
The dollar dipped but remained on pace for a weekly gain as war uncertainty kept investors on edge.
The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.32 percent to 98.51, with the euro EUR= up 0.3 percent at $1.1718.
Against the Japanese yen JPY=, the dollar weakened 0.19 percent to 159.4.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin BTC= fell 0.43 percent to $77,587.82. Ethereum ETH= declined 0.27 percent to $2,320.06.
US Treasury yields dipped on hopes that US-Iran peace talks could take place over the weekend, bolstering confidence that the war could be close to ending.
The yield on benchmark US 10-year notes US10YT=RR fell 1.7 basis points to 4.306 percent, from 4.323 percent late on Thursday.
The 30-year bond US30YT=RR yield fell 0.3 basis point to 4.9153 percent from 4.918 percent late on Thursday.
The 2-year note US2YT=RR yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 4.5 basis points to 3.78 percent, from 3.825 percent late on Thursday.
Gold advanced on the day but registered a weekly loss, as war-related inflation worries persisted.
Spot gold XAU= rose 0.38 percent to $4,710.30 an ounce. US gold futures GCc1 rose 0.2 percent to $4,714.40 an ounce.
