By Rae Wee SINGAPORE, April 24 (Reuters) - Asia shares struggled on Friday and oil prices resumed their rise, as a shaky ceasefire in the Middle East war and stalled U.S.-Iran peace talks gave
Tech boosts US stocks to record close, oil dips on signs of Iran peace progress
Market Overview and Key Drivers
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched all-time closing highs on Friday as investors assessed signs of progress in U.S.-Iran peace talks and weighed solid corporate earnings against downbeat forward guidance due to war-related energy price shocks.
Technology Sector Performance
Tech shares, buoyed by strong results from Intel, helped to lift the Nasdaq 1.6%, while the S&P 500's gain was more modest. The Dow closed in negative territory.
For the week, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq logged modest gains, while the blue-chip Dow registered a decline from last Friday's close.
AI Boom and Earnings Season
"Intel just confirms the AI boom is alive and well, and this earnings season is off to a tremendous start," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha.
Geopolitical Developments
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Pakistan to discuss proposals to restart peace talks between the United States and Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters that Iran plans to make an offer aimed at meeting U.S. demands.
"There's optimism that talks are going to restart soon," Detrick added. "With the extreme weakness we've seen from defense stocks the last two weeks, the market might be saying there could be some type of major peace deal on the horizon, which clearly is a net positive."
Oil Market Reaction
Oil prices dipped as optimism over potential U.S.-Iran peace talks offset supply concerns, but were sharply higher on the week.
U.S. crude fell 1.51% to settle at $94.40 per barrel, while Brent settled at $105.33 per barrel, down 0.25% on the day.
Corporate Earnings and Guidance
SOLID CORPORATE EARNINGS MARRED BY DOUR GUIDANCE
First-quarter reporting season has hit full stride, with 139 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 81% have beaten earnings estimates. Analysts now see aggregate year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 16.1%, up from the 14.4% growth projected at the beginning of the quarter, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.
Impact of Energy Prices on Guidance
But on analyst conference calls, CEOs are increasingly providing downbeat guidance due to spiking fuel costs resulting from the war with Iran. Consumer products company Procter & Gamble warned on its Friday earnings call that it expects a roughly $1 billion hit to its fiscal 2027 profit because of the war-related surge in energy prices.
Upcoming Earnings Reports
Several high-profile earnings are on the docket next week, including tech and tech-adjacent megacaps Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta Platforms. Oil supermajors Exxon Mobil and Chevron are slated to report next Friday.
"There's some very big names set to report next week," Detrick said. "We're optimistic we're going to continue to see solid earnings, just like we have had so far this earnings season."
Global Market Performance
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 79.61 points, or 0.16%, to 49,230.71, the S&P 500 rose 56.68 points, or 0.80%, to 7,165.08, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 398.09 points, or 1.63%, to 24,836.60.
European shares closed lower, dipping to a more than two-week low and logging a weekly decline of 2.5% as investors worried about the disruption of energy supplies by the Middle East conflict.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 5.42 points, or 0.51%, to 1,072.73.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.58%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 12.54 points, or 0.51%.
Emerging market stocks rose 12.86 points, or 0.80%, to 1,612.17. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 0.81%, at 825.78, while Japan's Nikkei rose 575.95 points, or 0.97%, to 59,716.18.
Currency and Crypto Markets
The dollar dipped but remained on pace for a weekly gain as war uncertainty kept investors on edge.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.32% to 98.51, with the euro up 0.3% at $1.1718.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.19% to 159.4.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.43% to $77,587.82. Ethereum declined 0.27% to $2,320.06.
Bond and Commodity Markets
U.S. Treasury yields dipped on hopes that U.S.-Iran peace talks could take place over the weekend, bolstering confidence that the war could be close to ending.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 1.7 basis points to 4.306%, from 4.323% late on Thursday.
The 30-year bond yield fell 0.3 basis point to 4.9153% from 4.918% late on Thursday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 4.5 basis points to 3.78%, from 3.825% late on Thursday.
Gold advanced on the day but registered a weekly loss, as war-related inflation worries persisted.
Spot gold rose 0.38% to $4,710.30 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.2% to $4,714.40 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Rae Wee in Singapore; Editing by Nia Williams, Nick Zieminski and Edmund Klamann)
