BY STAN CHOE
Updated 12:17 PM EDT, April 14, 2026
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is nearing its all-time high Tuesday, and oil prices are easing as hopes climb that the United States and Iran may try again on talks to end their war and avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy.
The S&P 500 rose 1% after rallying the day before back to where it was before the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February. It’s just 0.4% below its record and on track for its ninth gain in the last 10 days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 313 points, or 0.6%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.6% higher.
They followed gains for stock markets worldwide as Pakistan said it was trying to bring the United States and Iran together for more talks. Such prospects also helped lower the price of oil, whose production and transportation has been snarled by the fighting.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 3.8% to $95.56. That’s still above its roughly $70 level from before the war, but it’s well below its peak of $119 reached a couple times when worries about the war hit their heights.
To be sure, hope has often quickly swung into doubt in financial markets since the war began, which has caused extreme and sudden reversals . Much of the stress has been due to the Strait of Hormuz , a narrow waterway that’s the main avenue for crude oil produced in the Persian Gulf area to reach customers worldwide. Blockages there have kept oil off the global market, which has in turn driven up its price.
And that has meant a blast of higher inflation. In the United States, inflation at the wholesale level accelerated to 4% in March from 3.4% the month before, according to the latest data released Tuesday. That was actually better than the 4.6% rate economists expected, but it could filter down to U.S. households if businesses fully pass on the increases.
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