Wall Street indexes rise as US, Iran attacks ease; major tech-related shares jump

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By Caroline Valetkevitch and Niket Nishant

June 29 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each more than 1% higher, as weekend hostilities between the United States and Iran eased and as major technology-related shares rose following recent selling.

A source told Reuters that Iranian and U.S. technical teams working on the implementation of an interim peace deal are expected to meet in Doha in the coming days, with the weekend strikes threatening to derail the fragile agreement.

The U.S. and Iran on June 17 signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending four months of conflict. Under the document, both sides agreed to cease hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“The fact that we had hostilities between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend really didn’t have a negative effect on the market,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

“The market is looking forward and preparing for earnings season, which is not that far away,” he said.

Most S&P 500 companies are set to begin reporting second-quarter results after mid-July.

Communications services led gains among S&P 500 sectors. Shares of Comcast rose 6.1% after the media and cable provider said it plans to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies through a tax-free spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky.

SpaceX was up 5.3% after Nasdaq said the newly listed company will be added to the Nasdaq 100 index on July 7. Google parent Alphabet gained 4.6% as it kicked off its first day as a Dow component.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 358.34 points, or 0.69%, to 52,234.45, the S&P 500 gained 78.74 points, or 1.07%, to 7,432.92 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 464.42 points, or 1.84%, to 25,761.96.

Quarter-end “window dressing,” where investors buy certain stocks to make their portfolios look better, may also be helping the market, Cardillo said.

Concerns about AI spending had hit shares of artificial intelligence-related companies recently, including semiconductors and many of the Magnificent Seven group of megacap stocks. On Monday, the information technology index  was up 1.6%.

RBC Capital Markets cited earnings strength and a supportive macro backdrop as it raised its 12-month target for the S&P 500 index to 8,150 from 7,900.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.31-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange. There were 208 new highs and 94 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,699 stocks rose and 2,052 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.32-to-1 ratio.

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

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Avinash P; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Matthew Lewis)