US stocks hovered near five-week highs, largely preserving this week’s gains amid signs of easing geopolitical tensions. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were little changed, while the Dow traded slightly lower. Although the two-week ceasefire across the Middle East was mostly holding, the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz and ongoing clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon posed risks to this weekend’s negotiations in Pakistan.
Speculative technology shares benefited from improved risk appetite, with Amazon and Meta each rising about 2%, and Nvidia gaining nearly 1% following strong results from TSMC. By contrast, financial stocks edged lower ahead of next week’s earnings reports.
For the week, the S&P 500 has climbed more than 3%, putting it on track for its strongest weekly performance since November. The Nasdaq is poised to advance over 4%, also on course for its best week since November, while the Dow is up roughly 3% so far.
