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A choppy start for stocks on Thursday turned into a positive finish as market participants weighed headlines on a fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire. The day’s upside was sparked by a Bloomberg report that suggested Israel is prepared to hold negotiations with Lebanon, clearing a potential overhang in peace talks in the Middle East.
At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6% at 48,185, the broader S&P 500 was 0.6% higher at 6,824, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had added 0.8% to 22,822.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures also gained ground today, rising more than 3% to settle at $97.87 per barrel.
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Oil prices are now up 46% since late February and are expected to have a notable impact on the March Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, which will be released ahead of Friday’s open.
According to FactSet, economists expect the March CPI report to show that headline inflation rose 0.8% month over month – faster than the 0.3% increase seen in February. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is forecast to rise 0.2% on a monthly basis, the same as in February.
Stale PCE data drops ahead of March CPI report
The March CPI report is the biggest inflation data on this week’s economic calendar, though this morning’s release of the February Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index drew some attention.
The data, which was delayed due to last fall’s government shutdown, showed headline PCE was up 0.4% month over month in February – more than economists expected and faster than in January. Core PCE also rose 0.4%, which matched the Street’s forecast and January’s increase.
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“Today’s data collectively indicates inflation remains in its tariff impacted, elevated state,” says Bradford Smith, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors. “Nonetheless, the market will place more focus on Friday’s March CPI numbers, which provide a more relevant pulse on the impact this commodity shock will have on consumer prices.”
But with geopolitical uncertainty still running high, Smith notes that “not much matters for the market other than the durability of the ceasefire, shipping volume through the Strait of Hormuz and ultimately, whether a bona fide permanent deal is struck.”
Don’t bet against Amazon, says Jassy
In single-stock news, Amazon.com (AMZN) emerged as one of the best blue chip stocks on Thursday, gaining 5.6% after CEO Andy Jassy issued his annual shareholder letter (PDF).
In it, Jassy doubled down on the e-commerce and cloud giant’s artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, with notable callouts to Amazon’s efforts to design its own AI chips.
“Having our own hotly demanded AI chip opens up many possibilities, but perhaps none larger than the ability to lower costs for customers and secure better economics for AWS [Amazon Web Services, its cloud segment],” said Jassy. “At scale, we expect Trainium will save us tens of billions of capex dollars per year, and provide several hundred basis points of operating margin advantage versus relying on others’ chips for inference.”
Jassy added that the company is not spending roughly $200 billion this year “on a hunch,” rather, he expects the capex to be monetized within the next two years and said the AWS AI revenue run rate topped $15 billion in the first quarter. (Amazon is expected to release its full Q1 results in late April.)
“We are willing to make large capex investments and endure short-term free cash flow headwinds for the substantial medium to long-term FCF surplus,” he explained. “AI is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where the current growth is unprecedented and the future growth even bigger.”
Palantir keeps sliding
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has been one of the hottest AI stocks in recent years, with its share price quadrupling in 2024 and more than doubling in 2025.
But just as the market giveth, the market taketh away, and so far in 2026, PLTR is down nearly 27% – making it one of the worst S&P 500 stocks of the year.
Today, shares slid 7.3% after “Big Short” investor and Scion Asset Management founder Michael Burry wrote in a now-deleted post on X that Anthropic is “eating Palantir’s lunch.”
Anthropic, which is one of the most-anticipated upcoming IPOs, has seen its annual recurring revenue (ARR) surge to $30 billion from $9 billion this year, according to Burry, which shows that companies are seeking out “”easier, cheaper, intuitive” AI solutions.
