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Stocks hit their session lows early Monday as market participants reacted to news that the U.S. and Iran failed to reach a resolution during high-level talks held over the weekend. All three main indexes were higher by the close, though, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite notching its longest daily win streak since 2023.
After Vice President J.D. Vance left Pakistan without a peace deal, President Donald Trump said via Truth Social that the U.S. will block ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
News of the blockade sent front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures up more than 2% today to settle at $99.36 per barrel, but it didn’t have much of an impact on stocks.
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The Nasdaq, for one, rose 1.2% to 23,183, its ninth straight daily gain. The broader S&P 500 added 1.0% to 6,886 and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6% to 48,218.
“Investors are clearly exhausted by the conflict, and you can see it in how little the market reacts to bad news,” says Mark Hackett, chief markets strategist for Nationwide. “The focus is starting to shift back to fundamentals, where earnings remain supportive, and with institutions already on the sidelines, there’s simply less left to sell.”
Goldman Sachs stock weighs on the Dow
The earnings calendar starts to heat up this week, with several financial firms set to report. Goldman Sachs (GS) kicked things off bright and early this morning, though it closed 1.9% lower after disclosing its first-quarter numbers.
For the three months ending March 31, GS said earnings rose 24% year over year to $17.55 per share, while revenue was up 14% to $17.2 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $16.49 per share on revenue of $16.97 billion.
Strong growth in equities trading revenue and investment banking fees helped boost Goldman Sachs’ top and bottom lines, but Wall Street was disappointed by lower-than-expected fixed-income revenue.
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At roughly $890 per share, Goldman Sachs has the greatest influence on the price-weighted Dow, which helps explain why the 30-stock index lagged to start the week.
Salesforce leads Dow stocks
At the other end of the Dow was Salesforce (CRM), which climbed 4.8% — its best day of the year.
A broader rally in software names helped boost the beaten-down blue chip stock, with Oracle (ORCL, +12.7%) and Adobe (ADBE, +6.6%) among those seeing notable gains too.
This corner of the tech sector has been hit particularly hard this year amid fears that artificial intelligence (AI) will disrupt business models for software-as-a-service (SaaS) firms.
Salesforce, for instance, is down nearly 35% for the year to date, making it the worst Dow Jones stock of 2026 so far.
Aon hikes its dividend by 10%
Aon (AON) was also on the positive side of the ledger Monday, rising 4.1% after the professional services firm, which specializes in insurance and financial advising, hiked its dividend by 10%.
AON remains one of the best dividend stocks for dependable dividend growth, having raised its payout for 15 straight years. This helps explain why the stock has been a member of the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio since early 2021, given Warren Buffett‘s penchant for dividend-paying stocks.
“Buffett has an abiding love for long-term and reliable dividend payers,” writes Kiplinger contributor Dan Burrows. “For one thing, dividends enforce management discipline, he’s said. Even better is the magic of compounding.”
Case in point: Since early 2021, AON shares have generated a 53.7% return on a price basis. Throw in the dividend and that return rises to 54.3%.