NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The prospect of an extended ceasefire in the Iran war set new records on Wall Street on Thursday. Both the market-wide stock index S&P 500 and the technology-heavy stock market barometers NASDAQ 100 and Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ Composite Index) reached highs. The indices also benefited from positive company news surrounding artificial intelligence (AI).
According to US circles, negotiators from the United States and Iran have reached a preliminary agreement on a framework agreement. However, President Donald Trump still has to give his consent, as the news portal “Axios” reported, citing two US officials. When asked, circles confirmed the content of the media report.
The S&P 500 recently rose by 0.6 percent to 7,566 points. The Nasdaq 100 rose by one percent to 30,261 points, and the more comprehensive Nasdaq Composite rose by a similar amount. The US leading index Dow Jones Industrial, on the other hand, was recently slightly in the red at 50,624 points.
According to the business figures from Snowflake and Salesforce, the topic of artificial intelligence played an important role in our opinion. Brent Thill, an analyst at the investment bank Jefferies, spoke of the “story of the two big S’s” with regard to the two software companies: Snowflake is gaining momentum and Salesforce remains stable. This was also reflected in the share prices: While Snowflake rose by more than 38 percent, Salesforce was looking for a clear trend. Most recently, the shares were up a good one percent.
“The balance sheets confirm our assessment that the… Monetization of artificial intelligence first and most clearly in the area of data infrastructure,” said Thill. His colleague Gabriela Borges from the bank Goldman Sachs believes Snowflake is well positioned to get a big piece of the cake of AI-related demand for cloud services.
The software industry as a whole is experiencing a difficult time. Investors are fluctuating between concerns about the displacement effects of AI and the opportunities that this megatrend also offers. Salesforce, like the shares of its German competitor SAP (SAP SE), is trying to bottom out at its lowest level since 2023. Snowflake has recently recovered more clearly from its lowest level since 2024.
Among the biggest winners in the Dow, Microsoft shares rose by 3.5 percent. According to a report by tech and business magazine The Information, citing an unnamed person, the software company will unveil a number of new AI models at its annual developer conference next week.
The focus was also on the shares of drone manufacturers Kratos (Kratos DefenseSecurity Solutions), Red Cat and Unusual Machines, with price gains of between 14 and 60 percent. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the US government is in negotiations with companies in the strategically important sector about government financial aid. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine made the importance of drones clear. The Iran war recently underlined this.
Additionally, investors pounced on retailers after Dollar Tree unexpectedly raised its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast. The first quarter was unexpectedly good for the operator of cheap general stores. Shares at the top of the S&P 500 rose by almost 19 percent.
In its wake, Best Buy shares rose almost 18 percent. The shares of Kohl’s (Kohls) recorded an increase of a good 18 percent./la/he