New York, May 22, 2026, 16:02 EDT
U.S. stocks rose on Friday after the closing bell, with delayed Reuters/LSEG quotes showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average in record territory as investors leaned into hopes for progress in U.S.-Iran talks and a strong earnings season. The Dow was up 428.65 points, or 0.86%, at 50,714.31; the S&P 500 gained 45.82 points, or 0.62%, to 7,491.54; and the Nasdaq Composite added 130.07 points, or 0.50%, to 26,423.17. James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Ocean Park Asset Management, said the market’s backdrop looked “really solid.” Reuters
The move mattered because the Dow, Wall Street’s 30-stock blue-chip gauge, reached its first intraday record since the U.S.-Iran war began, passing its previous February peak. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, said investors were gaining confidence as the conflict edged toward an “off-ramp.” Reuters
It was not just a peace-talk trade. The S&P 500 was on course for an eighth weekly gain, helped by corporate profits that have kept buyers in the market even as oil, inflation and bond yields remain a live threat. The S&P 500 tracks 500 large U.S. companies and is often used as the broadest quick read on American equities.
Semiconductor shares helped carry the session. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 2.5%, with Qualcomm jumping 12%, while Nvidia slipped 1.6%. Semiconductors are chips used in computers, phones and artificial-intelligence systems; their moves have become a shorthand for the market’s appetite for the AI trade.
PC makers also caught a bid. Dell Technologies surged about 16% and HP Inc rose about 15%, with investors looking ahead to earnings and AI-server demand; Barron’s reported that Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers lifted his Dell price target to $270 from $180. Dell, HP and Lenovo are direct peers in personal computers, but Dell has drawn extra attention because of its AI-server business.
The bullish case found support before the open. UBS Global Wealth Management raised its 2026 year-end S&P 500 target to 7,900 from 7,500, citing resilient consumer spending and demand for data-center infrastructure. The firm also lifted its 2026 earnings-per-share estimate to $335 from $310.
Bond yields eased, taking some pressure off stocks. Reuters reported the 10-year Treasury yield, a benchmark U.S. government borrowing rate, fell 2.6 basis points to 4.558%; a basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. Lower yields can help equities because they reduce borrowing-cost pressure and make stock valuations easier to defend.
But the risks have not gone away. Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise, said the “macro environment” was moving back to center stage, while Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, warned that “inflation concerns continue to flare.” Next week brings the PCE price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, and a bad number could quickly revive rate fears. Reuters
Nomura on Friday dropped its call for Fed rate cuts in 2026, saying inflation pressures from the Iran war and a memory-chip shortage made cuts harder to justify. Reuters said CME FedWatch data showed markets pricing roughly a 58% chance of at least one 25-basis-point Fed rate increase by year-end.
That leaves Wall Street in a narrow lane: earnings and AI spending are still doing real work, but oil prices, the Strait of Hormuz and long-term yields can still knock the rally sideways. The Memorial Day holiday will shorten next week’s trading calendar, giving investors less time to digest inflation data and the last stretch of major earnings reports.
