Dow closes up 600 points as Trump claims talks held with Iran
Photo taken on Aug. 12, 2024 shows the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange NYSE in New York, the United States. (Liu Yanan/Xinhua via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial average closed up more than 600 points on Monday after President Donald Trump claimed “productive conversations” had been held between the United States and Iran.
The major stock indexes each soared more than 2% in early trading but gave up some of those gains as a flurry of headlines about the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran elicited price fluctuations.
The peace talks — which Iranian officials denied — sent the price of oil plunging on Monday on hopes that negotiations could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end a weeks-long global energy shock.
The Dow closed up 631 points or 1.3%, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 1.3%.
Each of the indexes remained below where it stood before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28.
A selloff cascaded across global markets in recent weeks as stockholders feared economic fallout from a potentially prolonged bout of elevated oil prices.
Global oil prices plunged more than 10% on Monday after Trump made his claim about ongoing negotiations with Iran. Still, the price of oil stood above $100 a barrel, marking a steep rise since the outbreak of war.
Trump, after postponing U.S. strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure citing new negotiations with Tehran, said on Monday that talks will continue and that there are “major points of agreement.”
According to Iranian state media, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Qalibaf said, “no talks with the U.S. have taken place; reports claiming otherwise are fake news aimed at influencing financial and oil markets and distracting from the challenges facing the U.S. and Israel.”
A view of the vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz following the two-week temporary ceasefire reached between the United States and Iran on the condition that the strait be reopened, seen in Oman, April 8, 2026. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Inflation surged in March after an oil shock triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, government data showed on Friday. The inflation report matched economists’ expectations.
Prices rose 3.3% in March compared to a year earlier, marking a steep rise from a year-over-year inflation rate of 2.4% in the prior month. Annual inflation jumped to its highest level in two years, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data showed.
The jump in prices owed in large part to a sharp rise in costs for products impacted by the oil shortage. Gasoline prices were 25% higher in March than February, the BLS report said. Overall, energy prices jumped almost 12% from a month earlier.
Airline fares increased 3.4% in March from February, the data showed.
The rapid acceleration of price increases could complicate interest rate policy at the Federal Reserve, which may be reluctant to lower borrowing costs as inflation climbs.
The Middle East conflict 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.
That energy shortage sent oil and gasoline prices surging worldwide. Gasoline prices in the U.S. stood at $4.15 on average per gallon on Friday, marking a leap of $1.17 since the start of the war, AAA data showed.
The BLS collected price data over the entire month of March. The inflation report, in turn, reflected prices for 31 of the first 32 days of war, excluding the outbreak of hostilities on Feb. 28. The ceasefire announced on Tuesday came after 40 days of fighting.
As part of a two-week U.S.-Iran ceasefire announced on Tuesday, Iran says it will allow tankers passage through the Strait of Hormuz as long as they coordinate with the nation’s military.
The resumption of tanker traffic remains uncertain, however. Tanker traffic was suspended on Wednesday after Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
Crude prices fell after the ceasefire announcement but remained highly elevated. U.S. oil prices topped $98 a barrel as of Thursday, standing nearly 50% higher than their pre-war level.
A surge in consumer prices could pose difficulty for the Fed as it weathers a slowdown of economic performance over recent months.
If the Fed opts to lower borrowing costs, it could spur growth but risk higher inflation. On the other hand, the choice to raise interest rates may slow price increases but raises the likelihood of a cooldown in economic performance.
Last month, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that despite rising energy prices and the potential impact on inflation, he doesn’t think the central bank needs to raise interest rates.
Powell noted that central bankers often look past shocks — such as sudden oil-price increases — since the upward pressure on consumer prices usually proves temporary.
“We feel like our policy is in a good place for us to wait and see how that turns out,” Powell said.
The benchmark interest 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.
The Fed will announce its next rate decision on April 29. Investors overwhelmingly expect the Fed to leave rates unchanged, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
The tool pegs a roughly 70% chance that the Fed will maintain interest rates at current levels for the remainder of the year.
A Nike logo is seen at the Nike flagship store, Dec. 20, 2019, in New York. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The federal agency that investigates workplace discrimination is seeking court enforcement of a subpoena it has issued to Nike as it pursues allegations that the athletic apparel maker has been discriminating against its white employees in its corporate diversity policies.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed its motion this week in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, where Nike has a factory that produces its famous AIR footwear technology.
The agency’s charges against Nike date to 2024, when commission member, and current Trump-appointed chair, Andrea Lucas alleged that Nike had been engaging in a pattern of discriminatory practices, including “race-based workforce representation quotas,” and hiring, promotion, demotion and firing decisions that were a function of “disparate treatment against White employees, applicants, and training program participants.”
In its filing, the EEOC says the charges were not triggered by internal complaints from workers, but were “based on publicly available information regarding Nike,” including the company’s public pledges to have “30% representation of racial and ethnic minorities at Director level and above in the U.S.,” and 35% representation across its entire U.S. corporate workforce.
The EEOC said in the filing that it has gone to court because the company provided some, but not all, of the data the agency requested on the racial and ethnic makeup of its workforce following the issuance of a subpoena last September.
“Respondent NIKE’s failure to comply with the subpoena has delayed and hampered the EEOC’s investigation of alleged unlawful employment practices under Title VII” of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the motion states.
In a statement to ABC News, a Nike spokesperson said that the EEOC’s move to seek court enforcement of the subpoena “feels like a surprising and unusual escalation.”
“We have had extensive, good-faith participation in an EEOC inquiry into our personnel practices, programs, and decisions and have had ongoing efforts to provide information and engage constructively with the agency,” the Nike statement said. “We have shared thousands of pages of information and detailed written responses to the EEOC’s inquiry and are in the process of providing additional information.”
Nike’s statement further said it is “committed to fair and lawful employment practices and follow[s] all applicable laws, including those that prohibit discrimination,” adding, “we believe our programs and practices are consistent with those obligations and take these matters seriously. We will continue our attempt to cooperate with the EEOC and will respond to the petition.”
Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Some Verizon customers were experiencing a service outage on Wednesday afternoon, according to the company.
Verizon said it was not immediately clear how long the service would be down.
“We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” Verizon said in a statement to ABC News. “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
Many Verizon customers said on social media that their phones showed “SOS” in place of network bars.
According to Downdetector at least 175,000 Verizon customers were affected at one point, but that number has since gone down. Downdetector, a site that tracks outages, said Verizon customers began noticing interrupted service around noon Eastern time.
New York Emergency Management (NYCEM) officials said the outage is affecting some users calling 911.
“Verizon is working to solve the issue,” NYCEM said in a statement. “If you have an emergency and cannot connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please call using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police precinct or fire station to report the emergency. In the meantime, you can check the website or social media account of your cellphone carrier for updates.”
