The S&P 500 is also up 14% for the quarter, while oil prices hold near $71 a barrel on the last trading day of the half
Bloomberg / Getty Images
U.S. stocks pushed higher on Tuesday, the final trading day of the second quarter, with the Nasdaq $NDAQ on pace to close out a 20% quarterly gain — its best since the second quarter of 2020. The S&P 500 has risen about 14% over the same period, also its strongest quarter since mid-2020.
Semiconductor stocks drove the major indexes forward on Tuesday. Intel $INTC stock jumped 4% and Advanced Micro Devices rose 3%, with Nvidia $NVDA tacking on more than 1%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF was up 3%. The Dow added 123 points, a gain of roughly 0.2%, as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted advances of 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively.
Zooming out to the full first half, small-caps were a standout: The Russell 2000 climbed more than 21%, a performance not seen since 1991, according to CNBC. Large-cap benchmarks also posted solid six-month results, with the Nasdaq up more than 11% and both the S&P 500 and the Dow each gaining more than 8% — the latter's strongest January-through-June stretch since 2021.
The road to those quarterly highs hasn't been smooth: Energy-price whipsawing and questions about the durability of AI investment rattled markets at various points, and a sharp retreat in technology shares as late as last week gave way only when buyers stepped back in at the start of this week.
Sunday's ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran — under which both nations paused attacks and reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping — translated directly into Monday's market rally. A U.S. official confirmed to CNBC that "both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely," and equities responded sharply, with the S&P 500 closing 1.18% higher and the Nasdaq up 2.07%.
Diplomatic activity continued to draw attention, with Trump having announced Monday that U.S. and Iranian representatives would convene in Qatar on Tuesday. Iran has yet to confirm that timeline, with an Iranian official indicating no decision on scheduling had been reached, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday despite the diplomatic developments. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures traded near $71 a barrel, while Brent crude was near $73 a barrel — well below levels earlier in the quarter when Middle East tensions flared.
In a Tuesday note reported by CNBC, UBS strategists acknowledged that questions about AI capital-expenditure sustainability have not gone away, even as markets begin the week on an upbeat note. The team argued that while AI-linked equities should continue to separate winners from losers over time, a purely concentrated approach carries risk — advising clients to look at "more defensive areas within the AI complex, such as data center operators and select payment companies, as well as other structural trends."
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