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The US stock market has hit an all-time high amid growing hopes for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and a flurry of bumper corporate earnings results.
The S&P 500, the most popular gauge of US stocks, surged 1.8 percent on Tuesday to top 7,700 for the first time, blasting past its previous record of 7,620.90 set on June 2.
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Wall Street’s benchmark index has risen 12.80 percent so far this year, comfortably beating its historical average of about 10.5 percent.
Palantir Technologies, a data analytics company closely tied to the US and Israeli defence sectors, was among the biggest gainers, with its shares soaring 29.5 percent on the back of forecasting-busting second-quarter revenue of $1.94 bn.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks 30 blue-chip companies, set a new record for a second straight day, climbing 1.7 percent to 54,085.88.
The rally continued in Asia on Wednesday morning, with key indexes in Japan and South Korea making major gains.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 3 percent as of 01:00 GMT, while the Kospi in Seoul was up 4.6 percent.
Brent crude, the primary international benchmark for oil prices, edged lower after falling about 5 percent overnight on hopes for an end to the months-long disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for about one-fifth of global oil supplies before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.
Brent futures for October delivery stood at $79.11 per barrel as of 01:00 GMT, down about 13 percent from the previous week.
The growing market optimism came as both US and Iranian officials touted progress in talks between Iran and Oman aimed at restoring shipping in the strait.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that while an agreement had yet to be reached, he hoped that a deal would “happen very shortly”.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with CNBC that an agreement on the strait could be reached as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said talks with Omani officials on designating safe routes for vessels have been “positive”.
Maritime traffic in the Gulf has been severely constrained since the start of the war amid the threat of Iranian attacks on vessels in and around the strait, as well as a US blockade of Iranian ports.
Just nine vessels transited the critical waterway on Sunday, according to ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic, compared with roughly 130 daily crossings before the start of the war.
The US military said on Tuesday that the strait was “free and open” to all commercial vessels despite Tehran’s repeated insistence that it has the right to control the movement of traffic in the waterway.
“Over the past three months, US forces have assisted more than 1,000 vessels in successfully transiting the strait despite unwarranted Iranian aggression, and these transits continue today,” US Central Command said in a post on social media.
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