By Rebecca Feng
Stocks jumped after President Trump told aides that he's willing to end the war without fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that handled roughly a fifth of global energy flows before the conflict.
The Nasdaq composite led with a gain of more than 3%, with the latest bump coming after reports that Iran's president was open to ending the war; the Dow industrials advanced more than 2%, about 950 points.
Investors appeared to welcome Trump's stance as a sign that the current phase of the war would wind down soon. However, the trajectory of the conflict, and its implications for global markets, are far from certain.
Trump on Tuesday morning urged other countries to launch their own operation to wrest control of the strait from Iran. Overnight, a Kuwaiti oil tanker anchored off Dubai port was struck by a drone, highlighting escalating tensions in Gulf waters.
Oil prices fell: the most-active Brent crude futures dropped 2.6%. The price of the contract had recently risen more than 70% this quarter, on track to notch its biggest quarterly percentage gain since the Gulf War in 1990.
Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline prices crossed the $4-a-gallon threshold for the first time since August 2022, and the European Union's energy chief urged countries to conserve fuel amid a "potentially prolonged disruption" in global energy markets.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 31, 2026 14:39 ET (18:39 GMT)
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