Markets
President Trump Addresses The Nation On The Conflict In Iran
US President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026, in Washington, DC. Trump used the prime-time address to update the nation on the war in Iran (Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

Futures surge, oil tumbles after President Trump agrees to two-week ceasefire

S&P 500 futures rose 2%, WTI futures tumbled double digits.

Luke Kawa

US equity futures spiked and oil futures tanked after US President Trump said he agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran as the two sides work to find a lasting end to the conflict.

S&P 500 futures rose as much as 2%, while front-month West Texas Intermediate futures tumbled double digits as of 7:05 p.m. ET.

In a Truth Social post, the president said the double-sided ceasefire was contingent upon Iran “agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran’s minister of foreign affairs acknowledged the agreement in a post on X, writing that “For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”

Trump added that Iran’s 10-point blueprint for a peace plan, which includes an end to the blockade of the strait, “is a workable basis on which to negotiate.” His message came roughly 90 minutes ahead of the 8 p.m. ET deadline the president had set to reach a deal with the Gulf nation, after which time he pledged to escalate attacks on Iran by hitting bridges and civilian power plants.

That 8 p.m. ET cutoff was itself the result of delays to previous deadlines set by the president.

The S&P 500 erased losses late in the regular trading day on Tuesday after Pakistan’s prime minister requested that President Trump hold off on additional attacks for two weeks “to allow diplomacy to run its course” and for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz for the same period as a “goodwill gesture.”

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Tasha Matsumoto
5h
Stocks eke out gain ahead of tonight’s deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

Traders were jittery ahead of the looming deadline, while President Trump posted on Truth Social that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if an agreement is not reached.

Bull with Nose Ring
Luke Kawa
6h
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
9h
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.

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