Big Tech Stocks Rise; Nasdaq Futures up 3.2%; Micron up 8%; ASML up 7%; TSMC, Tesla up 5%; AMD, Alphabet up 4%

U.S. stock futures jumped, and oil prices fell on Tuesday evening, after President Donald Trump announced a two-week-long cease-fire deal with Iran that would delay a planned American bombing assault on the country and make more time for negotiations between the two sides.

Nasdaq futures up 3.2%; S&P 500 futures up 2.5%; Dow futures up 2.3%.

Big tech stocks rose in premarket trading on Wednesday. Micron up 8%; ASML up 7%; TSMC, Tesla up 5%; AMD, Alphabet up 4%; Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia up 3%.

“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Shortly after Trump’s statement, the New York Times reported that Iran’s supreme leader had signed off on the deal, citing several Iranian officials. The news sent stock futures even higher.

Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, soon offered up confirmation in a post on X, saying passage through the Strait of Hormuz “will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration for technical limitations.” He also said Iran would cease all “defensive operations” if all attacks on the country by the U.S. and Israel were halted.

The fact that crude-oil prices were dropping while U.S. stock futures climbed and global stocks rallied indicated that investors had confidence that the deal would hold, Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, told MarketWatch. Others, however, pointed out that the exact speed at which traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would resume — a key issue for global markets — remained unclear.

“News of a two-week cease-fire [has] opened up some animal spirits and stocks are soaring globally. What is different about this rally from past hopeful equity rallies is, this time, crude oil is collapsing,” Detrick said. “Even though stocks jumped last week, crude gained. With crude tanking right now, this could be the first real clue that the potential for peace is legit.”

“I think it was the geopolitical path of least resistance,” Marko Papic, a geopolitical strategist at BCA Research, told MarketWatch.

Earlier, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite had managed to eke out a gain during Tuesday’s session, extending a recent winning streak, after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on X that he had proposed a cease-fire deal to both Tehran and Washington. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Tuesday in the red, but well above its lowest levels of the day.

Pakistan’s Sharif posted on X that he had invited representatives from the U.S. and Iran to in-person talks in Islamabad, to be held later this week. This would create an opportunity to “settle all disputes,” he said.

Shortly beforehand, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reportedly told Fox News that the prospect of in-person talks had been discussed.