Wall Street’s main indexes advanced after reports of fresh efforts to ease the Middle East conflict boosted sentiment, while traders also assessed a spate of corporate earnings. Delegations from the U.S. and Iran could resume talks in Pakistan to end the war this week
Gold prices gained 2% as the U.S. dollar weakened, while hopes of a resumption in U.S.-Iran talks also supported prices by easing inflation concerns. U.S. gold futures settled 1.7% higher.
Amazon.com said it will acquire Globalstar in an $11.57 billion deal, bolstering its fledgling satellite business as it tries to catch up with Elon Musk’s Starlink. Tech companies are pouring billions of dollars into capturing the lucrative market for satellite-based connectivity.
Meta Platforms is projected to surpass Alphabet’s Google in digital advertising revenue globally by the end of 2026, and dethrone the search-engine behemoth in the lucrative business. The Instagram-owner’s global net ad revenues are expected to reach $243.46 billion in 2026
Oil prices climbed about 4% after the U.S. military began a blockade of ships leaving Iran’s ports, drawing threatened retaliation from Tehran against its Gulf neighbors after weekend talks on ending the Iran war broke down.
Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public holder of Bitcoin, added a large haul of Bitcoin to its stash last week, edging toward 800,000 BTC in total holdings. Strategy acquired 13,927 Bitcoin for $1 billion between April 6 and 12, according to an 8-K filing with the US SEC.
