Wall Street strengthens as Big Tech bounces back and oil prices ease

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is strengthening on Thursday as tech stocks bounce back following an encouraging report from a Taiwanese chip giant and as oil prices ease sharply.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and was on track to break the two-day losing streak it’s been on since setting an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 406 points, or 0.8%, as of 1:43 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.

Nvidia and other formerly high-flying tech stocks helped lift the market after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a major supplier to the industry, reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. TSMC also said it could boost its investment in equipment to $56 billion this year to take advantage of the boom in artificial intelligence.

The frenzy around AI has already sent Nvidia and other superstar stocks to dizzying heights, but that created criticism that their prices had shot too high. Nvidia was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 Wednesday after sinking 1.4%. But it rose 3.5% after TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said it's seeing “continued strong demand" in an encouraging signal for the entire AI industry.

TSMC is a crucial player as a major supplier for Nvidia and other giants and as a key customer for ASML and other providers. TSMC’s stock that trades in the United States rose 6.4%, while ASML’s U.S.-listed stock rallied 6.2%.

Other U.S. chip-related companies helped lead the market, including gains of 8.8% for KLA Corp. and 7.5% for Applied Materials.

Also helping to calm financial markets was a sharp easing in oil prices.

A barrel of benchmark crude sank 4.3% to $59.34, while Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 4% to $63.87. Analysts pointed to comments from President Donald Trump, who said Wednesday afternoon that he heard “on good authority” that plans for executions in Iran have stopped amid widespread protests against the country’s leadership.

Financial markets took that as a signal that tensions above some of the world’s largest oil deposits could ease and lower the possibility of a disruption to the global flow of oil. Tehran, though, has indicated fast trials and executions ahead in its crackdown on protesters.

Gold’s price edged back from its record in another signal of potentially calming nerves across financial markets.

Earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies continued to pick up pace, meanwhile, with several more big financial companies delivering their results for the last three months of 2025.

BlackRock, the giant that’s now overseeing more than $14 trillion in investments, rose 5.8% after reporting stronger profit and revenue than analysts expected.

Morgan Stanley climbed 5.8% after likewise delivering stronger profit and revenue than expected. Goldman Sachs rose 3.8% after the investment bank topped analysts’ forecasts for profit but fell short on revenue.

Outside of earnings, Boston Scientific fell 3.7% after announcing it‘s buying Penumbra, whose products help remove blood clots, in a cash and stock deal valued at roughly $14.5 billion. Penumbra’s stock jumped 12.3%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose following encouraging reports on the U.S. economy.

One said fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in an indication that the pace of layoffs may be slowing. Other reports, meanwhile, said manufacturing was significantly stronger in the mid-Atlantic region and in New York state than economists expected.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.15% from 4.12% just before the release of the reports. It was at 4.15% late Wednesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.6% for one of the world’s bigger moves.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.