The Dow Jones Industrial Average logo appears on the screen of a smartphone in Reno, United States, on December 1, 2024. (Photo by Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 50,000 for the first time ever on Friday.
A surge in markets reversed a selloff that hammered tech stocks earlier in the week.
The Dow closed up 1,206 points, or 2.4%, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 2.1%.
In a post on social media, President Donald Trump touted the high-water mark for the Dow, celebrating the feat as “the first time in History.”
“CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!” Trump said.
Shares of some tech companies worldwide plummeted in recent days after Anthropic unveiled an artificial intelligence tool viewed by some investors as a potential replacement for widely-used software products.
The selloff came in response to a set of new plugins for a digital tool called Claude Cowork, an AI-fueled workplace assistant that can author documents and organize files. The plugins, released last Friday, allow customers to adapt the tool for narrow sectors like legal, finance or data marketing.
Investors appeared to shrug off the AI-related worries in a buying spree on Friday.
AI chip giant Nvidia surged nearly 8%, recovering most of its losses earlier in the week.
Enterprise-software company Workday ticked up more than 2% on Friday, after a selloff in previous days triggered by the release of Claude Cowork.
Some crypto prices also rallied on Friday, ending a days-long plunge for many digital currencies. Bitcoin and Ether — the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies — each soared about 10% on Friday.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The S&P 500 hit a record high on Wednesday as the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran entered its second week, appearing to boost hopes of a resolution to the Middle East conflict.
The uptick in markets came hours after President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to wind down the conflict, saying the war is “very close to over” in a portion of an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that aired on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% on Wednesday, registering at 7,005.78 points. The index reached a previous high of 7,002.28 points on Jan. 28.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 125 points, or 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 1.1%.
Markets have swung dramatically over the weeks following the start of the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, as investors weathered a historic global oil shock and digested mixed signals from Trump.
Stocks moved higher on a largely consistent basis in April, however, in response to an apparent willingness on the part of both sides to end fighting and negotiate a temporary truce.
The U.S. continues to mount a naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, exerting pressure on Tehran by choking off a key source of revenue.
On Wednesday, the commander of the Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of Iran’s armed forces said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is a “violation of the ceasefire,” in a statement published by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
The war prompted Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of the global supply of oil and natural gas.
The disruption amounted to the “most severe oil supply shock in history,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Tuesday. Oil and gasoline prices soared, prompting some economists to warn of a possible recession.
U.S. oil prices have fallen from a recent peak achieved in the early days of the war, but costs remain nearly 40% higher than pre-war levels.
U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan over the weekend failed to secure a peace deal. Trump said that Iran’s alleged unwillingness to abandon its nuclear program was the key sticking point, and that the U.S. would respond with a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which began Monday.
Israel, meanwhile, has continued ground operations and intense strikes in Lebanon, where it is engaged with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he supported the ceasefire with Iran, but that Lebanon was not covered by the agreement, despite Iranian protests.
ABC News’ David Brennan, Meredith Deliso, and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve on January 28, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A jobs report to be released on Wednesday will provide a key barometer of the U.S. economy as policymakers grapple with a combination of elevated inflation and sluggish hiring.
The labor market slowed sharply last year, prompting interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve and concern among some observers about the nation’s economic prospects.
The U.S. added an average of 49,000 jobs each month in 2025, which marked a staggering decline from 168,000 monthly jobs added over the prior year.
Economists expect employers to have hired 55,000 workers in January, amounting to a slight uptick from 50,000 hires in December. Still, the anticipated performance would barely register above the lackluster hiring of a typical month last year.
In a bright spot, however, the unemployment rate remains low by historical standards. Unemployment stood at 4.4% in December, and economists expect that level to have been left unchanged in January.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics delayed the release of the January data due to a partial government shutdown last week, which helps explain why the jobs report is set to be issued on a Wednesday in the middle of the month, rather than its customary release on the month’s first Friday.
The jobs report will arrive weeks after a series of job cuts that slashed tens of thousands of workers combined at a handful of name-brand companies.
Amazon said last month it planned to cut about 16,000 employees as it seeks to “strengthen” its business by reducing “layers” and “bureaucracy” within its workforce.
A day earlier, UPS announced it plans to cut as many as 30,000 employees this year. Pinterest also unveiled an effort to slash 15% of its staff, according to a securities filing. The company boasts about 4,500 employees worldwide, a securities filing shows.
So far, the cooling labor market has avoided widespread job losses, making the recent flurry of layoffs an outlier, analysts previously told ABC News. The high-profile cuts reflect trends in tech and some other sectors, however, where companies have reversed a pandemic-era hiring blitz and pivoted in response to artificial intelligence.
The Fed slashed interest rates three consecutive times last year in an effort to boost the flagging labor market. In January, the Fed opted to hold interest rates steady, taking a cautious approach due in part to elevated inflation.
The benchmark rate stands at a level between 3.5% and 3.75%. That figure marks a significant drop from a recent peak attained in 2023, but borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, Fed Chair Jerome Powell appeared to view the economy in a favorable light, saying it is expanding at a “solid pace” during a Jan. 28 press conference.
“While job gains have remained low, the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization,” Powell added.
Futures markets expect two quarter-point interest rate cuts this year, forecasting the first in June and a second in the fall, according to CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
A picture of Qatar Energy’s operating facilities on March 3, 2026 in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar. Qatar Energy announced a complete halt to liquefied natural gas (LNG) production at its Ras Laffan and Mesaieed facilities on March 2, 2026, after Iranian attacks targeted energy facilities. (Photo by Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Iranian attacks on significant energy infrastructure and refineries in several Gulf countries pushed oil and gas prices higher in volatile trading on Thursday.
Brent crude oil prices, a benchmark for global trading, climbed by about 6%, hitting $116 per barrel for contracts to purchase oil in May.
The benchmark for European gas also surged by about 15% after Iran on Wednesday released retaliatory strikes targeting energy sites in several Gulf countries.
An Iranian drone struck a Saudi Aramco refinery in Yanbu, on the Red Sea, on Thursday, according to the Saudi Ministry of Defense, which said the extent of the damage was being assessed. That refinery is a joint venture between Aramco and the U.S.-based Exxon Mobil Corp.
Kuwait also on Thursday said its Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery, which is run by the state-owned National Petroleum Company, had been struck by a drone. There was a “limited” fire at the facility, according to the official Kuwait News Agency.
Qatari authorities said on Wednesday that Iranian ballistic missile attacks caused fires and “extensive damage” at the Ras Laffan terminal, which carries about one-fifth of the global supply of liquid natural gas. Qatar Energy, which runs the terminal, has said on March 2 that it would bring liquefied natural gas production at Ras Laffan to a halt.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had issued warnings for several Gulf energy production sites, including the refinery in Yanbu, after Wednesday’s Israeli strikes on the South Pars Gas Field, the largest in Iran.
Those attacks added uncertainty to a market already on edge, as the overall conflict and the near-closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz by Iran has sent key energy prices higher.
The Dutch Title Transfer Facility, which is widely seen as the European benchmark for natural gas, saw forward-looking contracts for next month climb about 15% in midmorning trading on Thursday. Trading was volatile, and those contracts had registered intraday gains as high as about 30% in morning trading.
Since the conflict began on Feb. 28, with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran, the TTF benchmark’s rate has about doubled. Intraday prices on Thursday hovered above about 60 euro per MWh, while those LNG contracts had traded below 30 euro per MWh between mid-November and mid-January.
Brent crude had been trading prior to the conflict near $70 a barrel. Prices has previously peaked at about $120 a barrel on March 9.
