U.S. President Donald Trump attends to sign an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on March 31, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Evan Vucci | Reuters
Hello, my name is Dylan Butts from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
The roller coaster in global markets caused by the war between the United States and Iran continued on Tuesday, with Wall Street snapping back on renewed hopes that the conflict could be heading towards a resolution.
Those expectations were further heightened by the White House’s announcement that President Donald Trump will address the nation “to provide an important update on Iran” at 9pm ET on Wednesday.
But we’ve been here before. Optimism grows and the market rises, but then reality intrudes. Will this recent positive sentiment continue? Or will more declines and loops just accumulate?
What you need to know today
On Tuesday, there were a series of reports suggesting that the US and Iranian governments may be exploring a path to ending the conflict, including unconfirmed reports that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is willing to end the war if guarantees are provided.
The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump told aides that he was prepared to end military hostilities in the Middle East even if the Strait of Hormuz remained largely closed. The president later told the New York Post that he believed the war would probably end soon and that the Straits would “automatically” reopen once the U.S. withdrew.
The market rebounded sharply following the change on Tuesday. All three major U.S. indexes had their best days since May, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising more than 1,100 points. The S&P 500 Index rose 2.91% to end at 6,528.52, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 3.83% to 21,590.63.
After the market closed, President Trump predicted that U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iran within “two to three weeks.” The United States is building up troops in the Middle East in preparation for a possible ground operation against Iran, but no action has been taken so far.
Hours later, the White House announced that President Trump would give a speech Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET to “give the nation an important update on Iran.”
On Tuesday, President Trump also slammed Western allies, including France and the United Kingdom, warning that they “will no longer come to our aid” after the United States refused to join military action against Iran or help open the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the start of the war, the partial closure of the Strait has affected global supply chains, particularly oil. Brent crude oil prices remained elevated after Iran collided with a Kuwaiti oil tanker near Dubai.
While oil continues to dominate the WR-related headlines this week, we’ve also seen some notable price moves in tech stocks recently, especially in artificial intelligence.
OpenAI announced Tuesday that it has completed a record funding round that values the company at $852 billion post-money and has $122 billion in committed capital, up from the $110 billion figure it announced in February.
Meanwhile, CNBC confirmed that Oracle has begun telling employees it will cut thousands of jobs as the software maker grapples with a plunging stock price due to heavy spending on AI infrastructure.
— Dylan Butts
And finally…
Jim Cramer: The stock market will flip in three directions once the U.S.-Iran war ends.
Want to know how the market will react when the US-Iran war finally ends? CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday’s session will give investors the answer.
The “Mad Money” host said the market “made a move” as stocks finally rebounded and interest rates fell during Tuesday’s trading.
“Today we saw what happens when you give peace a chance,” Kramer said. “Maybe this dialogue with Iran is really just an exchange of messages. Maybe it’s pointless. So let’s take today as a dry run of what will ultimately happen when the war ends.”
— Morgan Chittum
