US Stocks Recover Amid Ongoing Tensions with Iran

The US stock market closed higher on Thursday, recovering from earlier losses in the week. The S&P 500 rose 1.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite gained 1.2% and 1.4%, respectively. This performance puts the indexes on track to post a gain for the week.

The rally was driven by big technology and communication services stocks, which have high valuations that significantly influence market direction. Microsoft rose 2.7%, Apple increased 1%, and Meta climbed 3%. Nvidia also rose 1.8% after announcing its acquisition of Hugging Face's AI platform for $13 billion.

Oil prices initially ticked higher due to the escalating conflict with Iran, but ended little changed. The price of Brent crude fell 0.1% to settle at $95.52 per barrel, while US crude rose 0.3% to settle at $91.30 a barrel.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 4.77%, and the yield on the 2-year Treasury slid to 4.34%. These declines reflect stabilizing bond yields, which have been rising throughout the year.