The main equity indexes gapped up on Thursday despite another hotter-than-forecast inflation report, this time on the producer side, as President Donald Trump continued to share updates on negotiations with Iran via social media. Stocks held their gains through the trading session and surged late, with investors, traders and speculators apparently poised for whatever comes next in the Middle East, be it more war or real peace.
By the closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.9% at 50,848, the broad-based S&P 500 was higher by 1.8% at 7,394, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had added 2.5% at 25,809.
