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Wall Street stocks rocketed higher Tuesday while oil prices retreated after Iran’s president said his country had the “necessary will” to end the war with the United States and Israel, lifting hopes that a resolution was in site.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a phone call with the president of the European Council, said Iran had “the necessary will to end this conflict, provided that essential conditions are met — especially the guarantees required to prevent repetition of the aggression.”
The comments prompted a surge in US equities, with the blue-chip Dow index finishing up 2.5 percent, or more than 1,125 points, at 46,341.51.
“This is the first concrete communication coming from Iran that feels verifiable,” said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management. “The market has been coiled for good news after having been down the last five weeks.”
Read Also: Anti-Trump Protests Launch On ‘No Kings’ Day In US
Stocks appeared to shrug off subsequent remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the more than month-long military campaign against Tehran was not over, vowing to crush Iran’s “terror regime.”
Pezeshkian’s remarks also shifted the oil market, which has been a major driver of financial markets since the US and Israel began their attacks on Iran on February 28.
Brent oil futures finished down 3.2 percent at $103.97 a barrel.
Even before Pezeshkian’s remarks, US and European stocks had risen following reports that President Donald Trump had said he was willing to end the war even if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened.
But worries about oil supplies continue to hang over markets.
The head of a maritime analyst group warned in an interview with AFP that Asia was confronting a major energy crisis as it faces the gravest fallout from the war.
“We think Asia will, for now, be the ones suffering the most,” Kpler president Jean Maynier told AFP at the company’s offices in Singapore.
Oil “remains painfully high for economies to deal with,” noted Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club.
In a sign that Trump will likely face pressure to bring crude prices down, the American Automobile Association said US gas prices jumped above an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022, when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.
European stocks rose despite data showing that eurozone inflation leapt in March because of surging energy prices, hitting its highest level since January 2025.
Consumer prices rose 2.5 percent, up sharply from 1.9 percent in February, the EU’s statistics agency said.
Asia’s main stock markets closed mixed.
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 3.2 percent at $103.97 a barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.5 percent at $101.38 a barrel
New York – Dow: UP 2.5 percent at 46,341.51 (close)
New York – S&P 500: UP 2.9 percent at 6,528.52 (close)
New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 3.8 percent at 21,590.63 (close)
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 10,176.45 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.6 percent at 7,816.94 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.5 percent at 22,680.04 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.6 percent at 51,063.72 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.2 percent at 24,788.14 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.8 percent at 3,891.86 (close)
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1551 from $1.1465 on Monday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3236 from $1.3186
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 158.77 from 159.71 yen
Euro/pound: UP at 87.28 pence from 86.94 pence
United States and beyond, as millions of people vent fury over what they see as his authoritarian bent and other forms of cruel, law-trampling governance.
It is the third time in less than a year that Americans have taken to the streets as part of a grassroots movement called “No Kings,” the most vocal and visual conduit for opposition to Trump since he began his second term in January 2025.
Now they have something new to fume over — the war against Iran that Trump launched alongside Israel, with ever-shifting goals and timelines for completion.
The anti-Trump mood has spilled beyond US borders, with rallies Saturday in European cities including Amsterdam, Madrid and Rome.
US protests began in several cities including Atlanta, where thousands of people gathered in a park to decry authoritarianism.
One man at the rally held a sign that read “We Are Losing Our Democracy.”
In the Michigan town of West Bloomfield, near Detroit, people braved below-freezing temperatures to protest.
And in the capital Washington, marchers — including people with banners that blared “Trump Must Go Now!” and “Fight Fascism” — walked across a bridge over the Potomac River to the Lincoln Memorial, site of historic civil rights demonstrations of years past.
The first “No Kings” nationwide protest day came last June on Trump’s 79th birthday and coincided with a military parade he organized in Washington. Several million people turned out, from New York to San Francisco.
