Catenaa, Tuesday, March 31, 2026- US stocks surged on Tuesday after reports said that President Trump had told his administration officials that he would be willing to end the war in Iran without a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average traded up by 2.14% and 1.83%, respectively, pulling back slightly from stronger gains earlier in the session. The tech-exposed Nasdaq Composite gained a stronger 3.2%.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks.
The report said that Trump decided that the US should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade.
“If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait,” the officials told WSJ.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to reopen the Strait by force. But on Tuesday morning, the US president seemed prepared to wind down aggressive military action, posting on Truth Social, “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done.”
On Tuesday morning, the president also told the New York Post that the war “won’t last much longer” and the strait will open “automatically” after a US withdrawal.
Communication from Washington has been erratic: Comments from US officials have pointed to potential progress in diplomatic discussions, while Trump also claimed that the US may move to seize control of Iran’s oil.
Oil prices eased on Tuesday but held above $100 per barrel as the US-Israeli war against Iran entered its fifth week. West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, traded around $104 per barrel, and Brent traded at $108.
Consumer sentiment from the Conference Board out Tuesday morning surprised to the upside, though the report still showed that concerns of higher prices coming down the pike are weighing on American households.
The February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), also released Tuesday, showed the lowest hiring rate since 2020.
In a bearish sign for consumer sentiment, US gas prices at the pump crossed over $4 per gallon nationally early Tuesday morning, according to data from AAA. Diesel prices averaged $5.45 per gallon.
