Stocks Rebound as Oil Falls From Hormuz Spike

U.S. stocks rose Tuesday afternoon as crude pulled back from Monday's Hormuz shock and chip shares led the equity tape. WTI fell 4.54% to $101.59, Brent fell 4.12% to $109.73, and the Nasdaq gained 1.05% as traders repriced the immediate inflation hit from higher energy costs.

Yesterday's Close

The S&P 500 traded at 7,264.20, up 0.88%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.05% to 25,331.41, the Dow gained 0.64% to 49,255.19, and the Russell 2000 added 1.56% to 2,839.64.

Technology carried the session. XLK rose 2.36%, well ahead of industrials at 0.84% and utilities at 0.81%. Communication services fell 0.60%, biotech fell 0.67%, and energy rose only 0.40% even with crude still above $100.

Intel was the cleanest single-name driver, up 13.84% to $109.04 after the company said first-quarter revenue rose 7% from a year earlier to $13.6 billion. Intel also guided second-quarter revenue to $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion, giving chip investors a primary-source number behind the move.

Qualcomm rose 9.20%, AMD gained 4.31% before its after-close earnings call, Broadcom rose 3.75%, and Caterpillar gained 2.85%. On the downside, Shopify fell 15.39% to $107.92 even after the company said revenue grew 34% and free cash flow margin reached 15%; the pressure came after Shopify guided second-quarter revenue growth to the high twenties and free cash flow margin to the mid-teens. Palantir fell 6.77%, Coinbase lost 3.58%, Meta slipped 1.01%, and Super Micro fell 1.06%.

Overnight

Asia leaned risk-on before the U.S. open. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.38%, the Hang Seng gained 1.24%, the Shanghai Composite added 0.11%, and South Korea's KOSPI jumped 5.12%.

Europe was mixed. The DAX rose 1.71%, the CAC 40 gained 1.08%, and the Stoxx 600 rose 0.70%, while the FTSE 100 fell 1.40%.

FX was quiet enough to keep the equity story focused on oil and earnings. The DXY was nearly flat at 98.442, EUR/USD traded at 1.1703, down 0.20%, and USD/JPY rose 0.64% to 157.85.

The overnight macro story stayed anchored in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces began supporting Project Freedom on May 4 to restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping through the strait. CENTCOM said a quarter of the world's oil trade at sea, plus significant fuel and fertilizer volumes, move through that corridor.

Pre-Market US

U.S. futures pointed higher in the midday data pull. S&P 500 futures rose 0.81% to 7,288.50, Nasdaq futures gained 1.35% to 28,151.50, Dow futures rose 0.58% to 49,362, and Russell 2000 futures added 1.59%.

The pre-market setup was straightforward: lower oil reduced the immediate inflation drag, while chip earnings and AI-linked demand kept buyers concentrated in semiconductors. High yield credit did not show obvious stress in the snapshot, with HYG up 0.20%.

By the Numbers

Bitcoin traded at $81,300, up 1.84% in the local pull, while Ether traded at $2,362.69, up 0.69%. CoinGecko's top-asset table showed Bitcoin up 0.84% and Ether down 0.56% over 24 hours, so crypto was positive but not the main driver of the session.

Gold rose 1.14% to $4,570.80 and silver gained 0.74% to $73.61, keeping a haven bid in the tape even as equities rallied. Copper rose 3.28% to $5.9850, natural gas fell 2.65% to $2.791, and the VIX dropped 5.63% to 17.26.

The 10-year Treasury yield was essentially flat at 4.414%, down 0.32 basis points. That matters because Tuesday's equity bid did not come from a rate rally. It came from oil retracing and chip shares doing the heavy lifting.

Today's Calendar

The Bureau of Labor Statistics scheduled March JOLTS for 10:00 a.m. ET Tuesday, along with a labor-market release on experience, education, partner status and health for people born from 1980 to 1984.

AMD is scheduled to report fiscal first-quarter results after the close, with management set to hold a call at 5:00 p.m. ET, according to AMD investor relations. The Fed has no meeting today; the next scheduled FOMC meeting is June 16 to 17 after the April 28 to 29 decision.

Energy traders are also watching the next Energy Information Administration Weekly Petroleum Status Report for U.S. inventories, imports, exports and spot-price tables. This week's bigger macro checkpoints are the April Employment Situation report due Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET and April CPI due May 12 at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Why It Moved

Oil fell because traders repriced the immediate supply shock after CENTCOM said U.S. forces opened a passage through Hormuz. The risk premium did not disappear. CENTCOM described an active defensive operation, not a resolved shipping environment.

"We've now opened a passage through the Strait of Hormuz to allow for the free flow of commerce to proceed." - Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, in a May 5 media conference call

Stocks rose because lower oil takes pressure off U.S. household gasoline costs and near-term inflation expectations. The Fed's April 29 statement said inflation remained elevated, in part because of the recent increase in global energy prices, and said developments in the Middle East were contributing to a high level of uncertainty about the outlook.

"Inflation is elevated, in part reflecting the recent increase in global energy prices." - Federal Open Market Committee statement, April 29, 2026

Chip shares led because investors had fresh company-level numbers to buy. Intel's first-quarter release gave the sector a concrete earnings catalyst, with revenue up 7% year over year and second-quarter revenue guidance above the first-quarter run rate.

"First-quarter revenue was $13.6 billion, up 7% year-over-year." - Intel first-quarter 2026 earnings release

Shopify showed the other side of the tape. The company reported 34% revenue growth and more than $100 billion of first-quarter gross merchandise volume, but shares fell after the company's second-quarter outlook pointed to high-twenties revenue growth and mid-teens free cash flow margin. That combination made the session less about broad risk appetite and more about valuation discipline around guidance.

The big watch item is whether oil's pullback holds while U.S. forces keep the Hormuz passage open. If crude stays elevated, the Fed's energy-inflation problem remains in the frame. If the passage keeps commercial shipping moving, the equity market gets more room to focus on earnings, Friday's jobs report and next week's CPI print.