Wall Street today: US stocks rise as Middle East tensions ease

US stocks rose on Monday after steep losses in the previous session as the tensions in the Middle East eased.

At 9:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 44.85 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 38,031.25, the S&P 500 was up 18.13 points, or 0.36 per cent, at 4,985.36, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 109.81 points, or 0.72 per cent, at 15,391.82.

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At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 130.5 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 38,116.89. The S&P 500 rose 20.1 points, or 0.40 per cent, to 4,987.33, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 114.1 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 15,396.13.

Shares of megacaps edged higher, with Meta Platforms, Amazon.com and Apple rising between 0.6 per cent and 1.5 per cent.

Nvidia rebounded 2.8 per cent, after a 10 per cent plunge in the last session.

Tensions in the Middle East eased as Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday that Tehran was probing an overnight attack, adding that so far a link to Israel had not been proven.

Tesla stock shed 3.7 per cent as the electric vehicle maker cut prices in a number of its major markets, including China and Germany.

Verizon fell 3.7 per cent after it reported weaker revenue for the first quarter than expected. 

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was flat at 4.63 per cent. The 2-year Treasury yield slipped to 4.97 per cent from 4.99 per cent late on Friday. 

Crude oil

Crude oil prices were mixed on Monday.

US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 0.03 cents or 0.04 per cent at $83.17 a barrel at 9:46 am CDT (1446 GMT). Brent crude futures were down 48 cents, or 0.55 per cent, at $86.77 a barrel.

Bullion

Gold prices dropped more than 2 per cent to a one-week low on Monday as worries over a wider Middle East conflict subsided.

Spot gold was down 2.3 per cent to $2,336.29 per ounce as of 9:43 a.m. ET (1343 GMT). US gold futures slid 2.7 per cent to $2,349.70.

Spot silver shed 4.6 per cent to $27.35 an ounce.