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Stocks maintain gains after whipsawing as traders digest war updates

Stocks rose for the fourth consecutive session as traders vacillated between hopes for a ceasefire and fears of an escalation.

Luke Kawa, Tasha Matsumoto

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 managed to maintain gains, and oil rose amid a volatile session. Traders vacillated between hopes for a ceasefire and fears of an escalation after President Trump said the entire country of Iran could be taken out in one night, “maybe tomorrow.”

Friday’s jobs report showed that US hiring surged in March, as job growth of 178,000 crushed estimates of 65,000, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped to 4.3%, below the 4.4% expected by economists.

This was statistically the most boring trading day in US stocks since the war began.

The daily range in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF as a share of the previous session’s closing price was just 64 basis points. That’s the least volatile intraday action since February 25 — before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Consumer discretionary was the best-performing sector, while utilities fared the worst.

Bitcoin managed to cross $70,000 for the first time in April, but couldn’t maintain the level.

Stocks that moved higher:

Stocks that moved lower:

  • Lucid fell after saying Q1 deliveries of the Lucid Gravity were disrupted due to a supplier quality issue.

  • Roblox dropped as Wells Fargo lowered its price target on the stock to $78 from $97.

  • Petrochemicals stocks LyondellBasell and Dow, Inc. dipped after Bank of America downgraded the stocks to “underperform” from “neutral,” saying tailwinds from Mideast war are unsustainable.

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Luke Kawa
28m
Anthropic is releasing its new model to select companies to get a head start on cyber defense

Fortune reported that the Claude developer would be doing this in late March.

Co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei
Luke Kawa
4h
Stocks sink and oil spikes as traders price in enduring, worsening Mideast war

Stocks and oil are building in more risk premium to deal with the perceived increased probability of a more drawn-out disruption to global energy supplies and shipments.

WH Briefing Iran 4/6/26
markets
Matt Phillips

Samsung’s massive Q1 fails to lift Sandisk, other data center plays

Almost all memory stocks slipped Tuesday, despite getting a positive update on the massive flood of money pouring into the sector from the AI build-out, as the potential escalation of the US war with Iran Tuesday evening overshadowed Samsung’s blowout numbers.

Korean chip giant Samsung Electronics reported preliminary Q1 results showing operating profit up by 755% compared to Q1 2025, trouncing pretty elevated expectations for a gain of about 550%.

Samsung is the world’s largest producer of NAND and DRAM chips. Once considered low-value commodity inputs to tech products, NAND and DRAM prices have exploded over the last six months amid a hyperscaler scramble to secure chips that can manage the surfeit of data produced by AI.

The same dynamics have made memory plays like Sandisk, Western Digital, and Micron some of the best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 over the last 12 months.

But other than Seagate Technology Holdings, those stocks were down Tuesday as of 11:15 a.m. ET, as the surge in oil prices and ongoing war with Iran muted much of the AI data center trade excitement. Bellwethers like Nvidia and hyperscalers like Oracle and Meta were struggling early, as were data center input makers like Corning and Coherent, AI power plays like GE Vernova, Vertiv Holdings, and even hard-hat builders of the shells that house all those AI servers.

On the other hand, some so-called optical stocks — makers of fiber-optic connections that quickly shift data between users, hyperscalers, and all around data centers themselves — were up. Lumentum and Arista Networks, two popular optical stocks, were showing resilience.

Samsung flags eightfold jump in quarterly profit as AI chip demand pumps prices

Samsung flags eightfold jump in quarterly profit as AI chip demand pumps prices

Samsung is the world’s largest producer of NAND and DRAM chips. Once considered low-value commodity inputs to tech products, NAND and DRAM prices have exploded over the last six months amid a hyperscaler scramble to secure chips that can manage the surfeit of data produced by AI.

The same dynamics have made memory plays like Sandisk, Western Digital, and Micron some of the best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 over the last 12 months.

But other than Seagate Technology Holdings, those stocks were down Tuesday as of 11:15 a.m. ET, as the surge in oil prices and ongoing war with Iran muted much of the AI data center trade excitement. Bellwethers like Nvidia and hyperscalers like Oracle and Meta were struggling early, as were data center input makers like Corning and Coherent, AI power plays like GE Vernova, Vertiv Holdings, and even hard-hat builders of the shells that house all those AI servers.

On the other hand, some so-called optical stocks — makers of fiber-optic connections that quickly shift data between users, hyperscalers, and all around data centers themselves — were up. Lumentum and Arista Networks, two popular optical stocks, were showing resilience.

markets
Max Knoblauch

Paramount surges on bullish options activity, 1 day after $24 billion Gulf backing report

Paramount Skydance shares surged more than 9% shortly after markets opened on Tuesday, on pace for their best day since news that the company had emerged victorious in the Warner Bros. bidding war broke in late February.

The entertainment giant is being propelled by bullish options activity, with about 17,000 call options having changed hands as of 10:03 a.m. ET, already ahead of the 20-day average for a full session.

The market move comes a day after reports that three Gulf sovereign wealth funds would back Paramount’s offer for WBD to the tune of $24 billion. Those working on the deal don’t expect the Gulf funds’ involvement to spark any additional regulatory reviews.

markets
Matt Phillips

Intel rises on news it will join Elon Musk’s Terafab project

US chipmaking icon Intel announced that it’s joining Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ambitious Terafab chipmaking project, sending the stock up early Tuesday.

As Sherwood News’ Rani Molla reported late last month:

“Terafab aims to bring all aspects of chip production — from design to fabrication to packaging — under one roof. Musk said the facility is intended to produce up to 1 terawatt of compute annually. The plant would manufacture inference chips for Tesla’s Robotaxis and Optimus robots, as well as custom AI chips for space-based applications, including solar-powered AI satellites. Morgan Stanley estimates the project could cost $35 billion to $45 billion in capital expenditure, likely shared between Tesla and SpaceX.”

That would be a healthy chunk of change for Intel to access, and could offer an opportunity to turn around both the finances and the narrative surrounding Intel’s struggling foundry chipmaking operations.

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