Wall Street rises, Dow hits record high as Middle East hopes lift sentiment

NEW YORK - U.S. stocks rose on Friday, with the Dow reaching an intraday record high, as investors cheered signs of progress in talks to end the Middle East conflict and a strong corporate earnings season.

The S&P 500 is on track for an eighth consecutive weekly gain, its longest winning streak since December 2023.

Semiconductor stocks, which have driven recent Wall Street gains, were mostly higher. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 2.5%, led by a 12% jump in Qualcomm, while Nvidia slipped 1.6%.

The U.S. has made some progress toward a deal with Iran, though more work remains, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said differences between the two sides remained deep.

"Earnings season looked really good and the economic data, save a few outliers, looked pretty solid so fundamentally the picture looks really solid," said James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Ocean Park Asset Management in Santa Monica, California.

"The war has been one major speed bump along the road for at least the equity market but I think the headlines today looked encouraging and that was probably helping at the margin."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 428.65 points, or 0.86%, to 50,714.31, the S&P 500 gained 45.82 points, or 0.62%, to 7,491.54 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 130.07 points, or 0.50%, to 26,423.17.

Nine out of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were gaining, led by healthcare, industrials and technology stocks.

Communications and consumer staples were losing ground.

Shares of U.S. computer makers surged following strong results from China's Lenovo Group, which reported a better-than-expected 27% jump in quarterly revenue. Dell Technologies hit a record high after jumping 17% while HP Inc surged over 15%.

Long-dated government bond yields were lower, having pulled back from recent highs. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 2.6 basis points to 4.558%.

"The bond market seems to be cooling off and yields are coming down from where they were starting to peak earlier this week and I think that's very encouraging too," St. Aubin said.

Kevin Warsh was sworn in as chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday, taking the helm at a pivotal moment for the U.S. economy as higher gasoline prices tied to the Iran conflict fuel inflation and weigh on consumer sentiment.

The CBOE volatility index plumbed its lowest in more than two weeks, ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.

Estée Lauder rose 12% after the cosmetics maker and Spanish perfumery Puig ended talks for a potential merger.

Workday gained 5% after the human resources software provider exceeded expectations for first-quarter revenue and profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.83-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 309 new highs and 68 new lows on the NYSE.

The S&P 500 posted 28 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 116 new highs and 65 new lows.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai, Devika Syamnath and David Gregorio)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 12:12 PM.