U.S. Stocks Rise as Oil Gains on Iran Escalation -- Update

By Rob Curran

U.S. stocks rose as a rally in Treasury yields stalled but equity and bond moves were muted as oil prices continued climbing due to clashes between Iran and the U.S.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 295.07 points, or 0.56%, to 53061.95. The S&P 500 added 35.13 points, or 0.46%, to 7666.60 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 118.05 points, or 0.45%, to 26217.83.

The yield on the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury declined 0.008 percentage point to 4.383%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 0.002 percentage point to 4.793%, after testing 2026 highs early in the session. The 30-year bond yield was unchanged at 5.266%. Yields snapped a five-session streak of gains.

Oil futures rose 79 cents, or 0.9% to $91.01 a barrel as the escalation in warfare between the U.S. and Iran reduced chances of a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in the foreseeable future.

The U.S. dollar ticked down against rivals after relatively weak private jobs data.

Private companies added 38,000 employees to payrolls in August, a slowdown from July and fewer than economists had anticipated, according to the latest survey from ADP. That was the most meager private payroll growth since January, and foreshadowed potential weakness in the Labor Department's report on Friday.

New York Federal Reserve President John Williams, who has been a leading advocate of the central bank's "hold and wait" strategy on interest rates, hinted he may now be leaning towards supporting a rate hike in an appearance on CNBC.

Rate-sensitive gold futures gained $18.30, or 0.42%, to $4366.30 a troy ounce.

Mortgage rates are tracking Treasury yields, crimping activity in the property market. Pending home sales declined year-over-year in August for the first time since November, according to Realtor.com.

U.S. oil major Chevron laid out plans to invest more than $7 billion in Venezuela over the next five years, doubling its production in the country's oil fields following a push from the Trump administration.

AI growth optimism was revived by a report from the PwC consulting and accounting firm. PwC forecast cumulative spending on AI to top $31 trillion by 2050.

Shares of Nvidia, one of the chief beneficiaries of the data-center spending boom, rose 3.2% to $224.41.

Dell Technologies soared 16% to $492.20 after the server maker said AI demand had caused its order backlog to almost double to $95 billion by the end of the second quarter, dwarfing Wall Street benchmarks.

Palo Alto Networks tumbled 9.3% to $328.48. Even 34% quarterly revenue growth could not meet investors' lofty expectations of AI-driven demand growth for the company's cybersecurity software.

A federal judge rejected the Justice Department's request to dismantle Google's online advertising business, the second time the company has fended off the threat of divestiture after being found to have illegally maintained a monopoly.

Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 02, 2026 16:44 ET (20:44 GMT)