Oil Tumbles, Nasdaq 100 Jumps 3% As Iran Says It's Ready To Halt Hostilities: 10 Stocks Moving
WTI crude oil plunged 2% to $100 per barrel after Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian declared the Islamic Republic is ready to end the war but demanded guarantees from the United States.
The breakthrough rhetoric sent equities soaring in early afternoon trading on Tuesday.
The Nasdaq 100 – as tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) – surged 3.2% on pace for its strongest rally since May 2025, while the S&P 500 extended gains to 2.6% and the Russell 2000 climbed 2.9%.
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) collapsed 14.4% to 26.20, erasing most of its March premium as investors shed hedges accumulated over weeks of Middle East uncertainty.
Airlines, Clean Energy And Growth Stocks Led Gains
The ceasefire signal catalyzed an aggressive rotation into the session’s most geopolitically sensitive names.
Airlines, which had been among the hardest hit by the energy shock, rebounded sharply on the prospect of lower jet fuel costs.
United Airlines Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:UAL) gained 4.4% and Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL) added 3.5%.
High-beta growth and speculative names surged even harder. Rocket Lab USA Inc. (NASDAQ:RKLB) led all movers with a 6.5% spike, AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) surged 5.5%, and Carvana Co. (NASDAQ:CVNA) jumped 5.3% as risk appetite returned decisively.
Clean energy and photonics names also surged on the lower-rates narrative. Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE:BE) gained 4.5%, Coherent Corp. (NASDAQ:COHR) added 4.0%, Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) climbed 3.9%, and Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LUMN) rose 3.8%.
According to Benzinga Pro, these were the large-cap stocks (market cap above $10 billion) posting the strongest gains in the previous hour of trading.
| Company | Change (%) |
|---|---|
| Rocket Lab USA, Inc. | +6.46% |
| AST SpaceMobile, Inc. | +5.48% |
| Carvana Co. | +5.31% |
| Bloom Energy Corp. | +4.53% |
| United Airlines Holdings, Inc. | +4.37% |
| Coherent Corp. | +4.00% |
| Moderna, Inc. | +3.89% |
| Polestar Automotive Holding UK PLC (NASDAQ:PSNY) | +3.84% |
| Lumentum Holdings Inc. | +3.75% |
| Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (NASDAQ:STRL) | +3.74% |
| Delta Air Lines, Inc. | +3.54% |
Top 10 Stocks Created Nearly $1 Trillion In Market Cap On Tuesday
The day’s rally concentrated in the largest mega-cap technology and semiconductor names, which collectively generated nearly $950 billion in market capitalization gains.
| Rank | Company | Market Cap Gain |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) | +$201.93B |
| 2 | Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) | +$157.27B |
| 3 | Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) | +$99.32B |
| 4 | Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) | +$91.25B |
| 5 | Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) | +$85.47B |
| 6 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (NYSE:TSM) | +$84.21B |
| 7 | Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) | +$77.63B |
| 8 | Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) | +$67.74B |
| 9 | Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) | +$56.52B |
| 10 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) | +$28.46B |
Photo by JHVEPhoto via Shuttesstock