Stocks rise on Wall Street as bond yields ease some more, even while oil prices continue to climb

Gains in big technology stocks and easing bond yields helped lift Wall Street on Thursday even as oil prices ticked higher amid an escalation in the U.S. war with Iran.The S&P 500 was up 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 631 points, or 1.2%, as of 1:53 p.m.

The indexes are coming off their first gain after a three-day slide.Gains in big technology and communication services stocks led the way higher. Their large market values tend to give them more influence over the broader market’s direction.Microsoft rose 2.8%, Apple gained 0.7% and Meta climbed 3.6%.Giant chip maker Nvidia, whose high-end chips have emerged as AI’s best building blocks, rose 2.2% after saying it would buy the artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face for $13 billion.Markets rose in Europe, but ended mixed in Asia.Oil prices ticked higher as the six-month long U.S. war with Iran intensified.Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for U.S.

hit Iranian rocket launchers Sunday on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, saying Iran was planning to use them to send mines into the waterway.The renewed fighting has sent U.S. crude prices sharply higher this week, though the momentum cooled Thursday. After rising in the early going, the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was down 0.1% to $95.55 per barrel.

crude rose 0.5% to $91.51 a barrel.Rising oil prices have added to existing inflationary pressures and exacerbated a bond-market sell-off earlier this week.But bond yields have shown signs of stabilizing.The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, dropped to 4.76% from 4.79% late Wednesday. It has been rising steadily throughout the year and was as low as 4.20% at the beginning of 2026.The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for Federal Reserve moves on interest rates, slid to 4.33% from 4.39%. It remains significantly higher for the year, though, and was as low as 3.50% at the beginning of 2026.Traders had their eye on several companies following their latest quarterly snapshots.Snowflake jumped 20.4% after its quarterly profit and revenue blew past analysts’ estimates.

The company noted that artificial intelligence continues to be a strong driver for i… The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 634 points, or 1.2%, as of 12:42 p.m. crude prices sharply higher this week, though the rate of increase slowed Thursday.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.1% to $95.75 per barrel.