Ahead of the deadline, the US and Iran managed to agree on a two-week ceasefire deal. While fragile, the truce helped to lift market sentiment, and this was further boosted on Thursday as Israel also sought to hold talks with Lebanon.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a small pullback at the end of the week, taking stock of the situation as well as digesting the latest US inflation report. The Nasdaq Composite managed to avoid the Friday dip, buoyed by gains in the tech sector. Indeed, the index managed to pull itself out of correction territory. Overall for the week, all three indices saw gains of over 3%, seeing their best performance since November 2025. Energy was the only S&P 500 sector to record a loss as oil prices declined. Brent saw its steepest weekly loss since August 2022, down over 12%. US Treasury yields ticked higher with the 10-year Treasury note ending at 4.32%.
European markets also experienced strong positive performance for the week, rallying on the ceasefire news. The pan-European STOXX 600 added 3.1%, in its third consecutive weekly gain. On Wednesday the index logged its biggest one-day gain in over than four years, in a relief rally. Both French and German indices climbed over 4% for the session and posted advances for the week. This was despite relatively weak economic data releases, with German factory orders increasing less than expected in February, while the French services activity index contracted in March.
Asia Pacific markets saw some of the strongest gains of the week, also helped by positivity around technology stocks. Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 7.2%, although the broader Topix was up 2.6%. The yen had strengthened against the US dollar on the ceasefire news but it ended the week little changed. South Korea also resumed its tech momentum which had been stifled recently as geopolitical tensions had overshadowed it. The Kospi index gained almost 9%. In China the Shanghai Composite was up 2.7%, also finding support from the fact that the producer price index had turned positive for the first time in over three years.