Business Recorder
NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks edged higher early Tuesday, as markets hoped for a continuation of a US-Iran ceasefire while digesting US data and earnings. After spiking a day earlier on Iran’s resumed closure of the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices edged lower on Tuesday. A two-week ceasefire is set to expire by Wednesday. About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 percent at 49,673.23. READ MORE: Wall St retreats after rally as rising US-Iran tensions hurt risk appetite The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1 percent at 7,114.01, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also advanced 0.1 percent to 24,423.19. “The demand for stocks is there this morning, with market participants clutching to good news over bad and retaining hope that the Iran war won’t have a lasting and negative impact on the global economy,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare. US retail sales rose by 1.7 percent from the prior month to $752.1 billion, climbing more than expected due largely to surging gasoline prices. Among individual companies, Apple fell 0.8 percent after announcing that longtime CEO Tim Cook will step down this year, handing the top job to company veteran John Ternus as the company navigates a technology landscape being upended by AI. After earnings results, UnitedHealth Group jumped 8.2 percent while RTX edged up 0.1 percent.
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