Nasdaq Hits Record High as Gold, Oil and Bitcoin All Rally Together Ahead of Iran Talks

Monday's session ended with the Nasdaq at a fresh intraday record as technology shares rebounded and Treasury yields eased, pulling money back into growth stocks after weeks of caution over interest rates. The rally had a second engine: AMD closed the day valued above $1 trillion, joining the small group of companies at that threshold, as chip stocks across Asia snapped back from recent losses. Falling yields make future profits worth more in today's money, which is why lower borrowing costs and a chip-sector bounce showed up in the same session. The geopolitical backdrop was unusual because gold and oil rose together, a combination that normally signals investors hedging against supply disruption while still pricing in a peaceful outcome. Both moves tracked the same trigger: traders were watching for signs of U.S.-Iran talks that could ease tension around the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a large share of the world's seaborne oil passes. A separate report suggesting Iran might reopen the strait sent defense stocks down 3%, since a lower risk of conflict reduces expected demand for military spending. Yet diesel and jet fuel prices jumped anyway, as the Hormuz standoff squeezed refiners even as a Saudi pipeline restart lifted diesel margins in Europe — a sign the market has not settled on whether the risk is rising or falling. In chips, Nvidia's China chip sales sat at zero heading into a planned Trump-Xi summit, the result of U.S. export controls that have kept its advanced processors out of the Chinese market; investors were watching the summit for any sign of a change. Citi forecast enterprise solid-state drive demand jumping 52.9% by 2027 on the artificial-intelligence data center buildout, reinforcing the bull case behind AMD's new valuation, though analysts were split: one called the stock