Stock market today: Live updates
Traders work during Madison Air Solutions Corp.’s initial public offering (IPO) on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Thursday, April 16, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures traded mixed early Friday after President Donald Trump said that the war in Iran “should be ending pretty soon.”
He made the remarks at an event in Las Vegas Thursday and described the conflict as “going along swimmingly.” Trump’s remarks came hours after he announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a 10-day ceasefire.
S&P 500 futures traded around the flatline, while Nasdaq 100 futures inched 0.1% lower. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 61 points, or 0.13%.
All three of the major indexes rose during Thursday’s regular session, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite respectively adding 0.26% and 0.36%. Both averages posted new intraday and closing highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 115 points, or 0.24%.
The S&P 500 erased its losses since the beginning of the Iran war, and climbed even higher on Thursday after Trump said that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon agreed to the ceasefire after meeting in Washington. The temporary truce will start at 5 p.m. ET. He added that the next round of in-person negotiations could occur “probably, maybe, next weekend.”
These developments build on Trump’s remarks from earlier this week that the Iran war is “very close to over,” and that Tehran wants to “make a deal very badly.”
Hopes of a peace deal have sent stocks higher in recent days, with the three major averages all pacing to end the week higher. The blue-chip Dow has added 1.4%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have risen 3.3% and 5.2%, respectively.
But Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, cautioned that the narrowness of this market comeback may not necessarily suggest longevity in the upward move.
“11 days, we got to new all-time highs. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I think we need to see a little bit more participation under the surface to feel some comfort that there is something lasting here,” she said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Thursday afternoon.
“I just think that there are still a lot of unanswered questions. I think this is an environment where you just want to go back to the disciplines of diversification across and within asset classes,” she added. “Don’t try to make big bets here, and use volatility to your advantage by maybe kicking up the rebalancing schedule, particularly if you were the type of investor to do that purely based on the calendar.”
Netflix shares fell more than 9% on Thursday after the streaming giant offered up a disappointing forecast and said co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings would step down from the board in June.
More earnings are on the schedule before Friday’s opening bell, with financial firms State Street, Truist Financial, Regions Financial, Fifth Third and Ally Financial set to report.
