Wall St extends rally on tech strength; Mideast deal stays in focus

By Twesha Dikshit and Utkarsh Hathi

Major Wall Street indexes extended their record run on Friday and were headed for weekly and monthly gains as Dell results drove tech shares higher, while investors awaited details on a potential U.S.-Iran deal.

President Donald Trump said in a social media post that he would make a final decision on the deal on Friday. Tehran earlier said it was looking for action, not words when it came to an agreement.

Dell jumped almost 30% after raising its full-year profit and revenue forecasts on Thursday. The tech sector climbed up 1.8%, led by gains in chip stocks.

Peers Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro Computer gained 15.5% and 12.7%, respectively.

All three indexes hit intraday record highs, cruising on renewed optimism around AI and strong earnings growth, despite some concerns about the Iran war's impact on inflation and the global economy.

"We certainly haven't seen the last of AI optimism. It's particularly on the strength of first-quarter earnings," said Melissa Brown, head of investment decision research at SimCorp.

"What we've seen over the past few weeks is volume going up, which suggests we've got more people coming in. Some people call it FOMO and once that rally gets going, people want to participate."

The S&P 500 was on track for a ninth consecutive weekly gain, its longest winning streak since December 2023.

Eight of the 11 main S&P 500 sectors were in the red. The S&P 500 communications services sector fell 1.3%, as Alphabet dropped 1.7%.

Consumer staples shares tumbled 2.2% with bigweights Costco and Walmart down over 3.5% each.

The S&P automaker index dropped 1.4% after reports the Trump administration wants North American-built vehicles to have 82% regional content to qualify for preferential treatment under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

General Motors and U.S.-listed shares of Stellantis were down about 2% each.

The software services index advanced 5%, erasing all losses since January-end, when concerns over AI disruption had weighed on the sector.

At 11:28 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 377.38 points, or 0.75%, to 51,044.40, the S&P 500 gained 23.64 points, or 0.31%, to 7,587.03 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 72.03 points, or 0.26%, to 26,988.24.

The small-cap Russell 2000 index was down 0.7%.

U.S. economic data on Thursday showed inflation increased at its fastest pace in three years in April, while GDP for the first quarter was revised lower to a 1.6% annual rise.

The Fed's Kansas President Jeffrey Schmid warned that the energy shock may not be temporary; Vice Chair for Supervision, Michelle Bowman, said a persistent rise in inflation might require tighter monetary policy.

Money markets expect the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady for the rest of the year, with some expectations of a 25 basis point hike in December.

Among other movers, Gap shares tumbled 17.3% after the apparel retailer cut its annual sales forecast, while American Eagle Outfitters dropped 12.6% after keeping its annual comparable sales forecast unchanged.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.04-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and seven new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 90 new highs and 39 new lows.

(Reporting by Twesha Dikshit and Utkarsh Hathi; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Devika Syamnath)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 12:22 PM.