US stock markets saw significant gains on Tuesday. At the close of trading in New York, the Dow reached 54,086 points, marking a 1.7 percent increase compared to the previous day. Slightly earlier, the broader S&P 500 was up 1.8 percent at around 7,737 points, while the Nasdaq 100, a technology-focused index, calculated at roughly 29,733 points, surged 3.3 percent.
The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 both hit new record highs. Gains were driven not only by hopes of a potential agreement between the US and Iran but also by strong quarterly earnings reports. Caterpillar, a manufacturing company, significantly surpassed expectations with its results. Its performance was boosted particularly by strong growth in its energy technology business, which benefited from the demand for AI data centers. These strong Caterpillar figures, alongside those from Palantir, bolstered market confidence in the growth potential of Artificial Intelligence.
In international markets, the Euro strengthened slightly Tuesday evening; one Euro cost $1.1532, meaning a dollar was trading at 0.8672 Euros.
On the commodities front, the price of gold managed to increase, reaching $4,080 per troy ounce by evening, a rise of 0.6 percent. This equates to a price of 113.74 Euros per gram. Conversely, oil prices fell sharply. A barrel of Brent crude from the North Sea traded at $79.33 around 10 PM German time on Tuesday, representing a decrease of 5.3 percent (or 444 cents) from the previous day’s closing figures.
