The recovery on Wall Street continues; The two Israeli women who leap

17:55

A renewed buying wave in stocks is pushing the market higher, after the rally in oil prices calmed down and provided some relief to investors who feared the impact of energy costs on inflation and growth, against the background of the ongoing war in Iran.

More than 400 stocks in the S&P 500 index rose, and the index recorded a second day of gains in a row. American oil reduced early gains and traded around $95 per barrel. Airline stocks soared after industry executives reported strong demand, with travelers rushing to book flights ahead of a possible hike in fuel prices.

S&P 500 is up about 0.5% after the sharpest daily increase since the start of the war, Nasdaq up 0.4%, Dow Jones up 0.3%.

Among the prominent stocks, Qualcomm After announcing a plan to buy back shares in the amount of 20 billion dollars and increase the dividend.

At the same time, bond yields fell along with the dollar, on the eve of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision. While the prevailing expectation is for the interest rate to remain unchanged, attention shifts to the question of how the central bank will react if the consequences of the war in the Middle East pull its goals – price stability and growth – in opposite directions.

16:59

stock Elbit Systems Metsfat, after its financial results for 2025 far exceeded analysts’ forecasts. For the full year 2025, Elbit reported adjusted earnings per share of $12.75, an increase of about 45% compared to the figure of $8.76 in 2024.

The company, which trades in a market value of about 45 billion dollars, has increased by 70% since the beginning of the year.

The company’s revenues amounted to 7.94 billion dollars, an increase of 16.3% compared to 6.83 billion dollars in 2024. The company’s order backlog reached $28.1 billion, compared to $22.6 billion in 2024.

16:50

The investment bank Morgan Stanley put forward a recommendation for the stock Lemonade to “overweight” instead of “market weight”. Analyst Bob Jian Huang also raised the target price to $85 from $80, implying a potential upside of about 47% from yesterday’s closing price.

According to Huang, the development of autonomous vehicles is expected to gradually change the way car insurance is priced. To the extent that autonomous driving technologies will harm the competitive advantages of some traditional insurance companies, new winners in the industry may emerge – among them Lemonade.

The move comes after Lemonade announced cooperation in the field of autonomous vehicle insurance with Tesla. As part of the agreement, owners of Tesla vehicles using Full Self-Driving technology can receive a 50% discount for every mile traveled using the system, while maintaining insurance underwriting discipline.

16:20

stock Navios Group Nabios falls by about 9% after the company announced the raising of 3.75 billion dollars through convertible debt, a move that comes precisely after large deals with Meta and Nvidia.

Nabios will sell convertible bonds to institutional investors in two series: $2 billion due in 2031 and another $1.75 billion due in 2033. The company, which provides dedicated cloud infrastructure for artificial intelligence, plans to use the money to finance growth, mainly through the establishment of data centers and the purchase of chips.

The decline in the stock reflects, among other things, a potential dilution for investors (due to the possibility of conversion to shares in the future), alongside a significant amount of fundraising that indicates heavy investments going forward – even if it supports long-term expansion.

15:37

stock Uber Technologies (Uber) leaps after QNvidia announced that Uber will begin deploying a fleet of Level 4 autonomous vehicles in Los Angeles and San Francisco as early as 2027, as part of the companies’ joint efforts in the field of autonomous driving.

The two previously announced their intention to operate approximately 100,000 vehicles based on Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion platform, during the GTC event held in Washington in October. Now a clear timetable for the actual launch of the service has been revealed for the first time, as part of the GTC conference held in San Jose.

According to Nvidia, the service is expected to expand further beyond California to 28 cities on four continents. In addition to Uber, companies such as Lyft, Bolt and Grab are also using Nvidia’s systems to develop and operate their own autonomous driving capabilities.

15:30

Wall Street opened slightly higher, as the sharp increase in oil prices calmed down a bit after attacks on key energy infrastructures in the Middle East. At the same time, the price of diesel in the US crossed the $5 per gallon mark for the first time since 2022.

S&P 500 is up about 0.4% after the sharpest daily increase since the start of the war, Nasdaq up 0.3%, Dow Jones up 0.7%.

Brent crude jumped up to 4.8% following Iranian attacks in the Persian Gulf, but later reduced the gains. The government bond market remained relatively stable after ADP Research data that indicated a slowdown in employment growth in the private sector, and the dollar remained essentially unchanged.

Oil prices have soared by more than 40% since the start of the fighting. In recent developments, operations at the Shah oil field in the United Arab Emirates have been shut down, and oil fields and ports in Iraq and the Emirates have been attacked by drones and missiles. Israel reported that it killed the head of Iran’s security apparatus in a night attack.

Among the prominent stocks, Nvidia rose about 0.3% after forecasting at least a trillion dollars in revenue from AI processors by 2027. Delta Air Lines shares jumped more than 4% following an optimistic sales forecast for the first quarter.

14:55

Trading in Europe continues to be conducted with price increases. The Dax index rises by about 0.4%, the FTSE advances by about 0.8% and the KAC adds to its value by about 0.7%.

While they opened the day lower, Wall Street futures are now up as much as 0.3%. This, among other things, against the backdrop of the assassination of a number of senior officials in Iran, including the secretary of the National Security Council in Iran, Ali Larijani, who is considered the strongest man in the Iranian regime, and the commander of the Iranian Basij, Gholam Reza Soleimani.

12:00

Trading in Europe moved to price increases. The Frankfurt stock exchange rises by about 0.3%, while the London and Paris stock exchanges climb by about 0.7%. CNBC reports that infrastructure, auto and oil and gas stocks lead the gains, while technology and industrial stocks lag behind.

10:35

European stock markets opened the day in a mixed trend, while oil prices continue to climb. The DAX index falls by about 0.4%, the FTSE advances by about 0.1% and the CAC trades stably.

Brent oil is now up about 4% and is trading around $104 per barrel, while American oil is up close to 5% and is trading around $97 per barrel.

9:30

company Klatura which provides solutions for creating and managing corporate content and managing analytics in multi-channel conversations, exceeded the forecasts in its reports for the fourth quarter and for the year 2025, and at the same time announced a purchase for 22 million dollars. In response, the stock rose about 8% in late trading on Wall Street.

The company, under the management of co-founder Ron Yekutiel, recorded in the fourth quarter revenues of $45.5 million, slightly above market forecasts, but presented a non-GAAP net profit of $5.1 million, which is 3 cents per share, while analysts expected it to lose. The company expects revenues of 181.2-184.2 million dollars this year, growth of about 1% compared to 2025, with an adjusted EBITDA of 12.7-14.7 million dollars, a decrease from 18.6 million dollars in 2025.

Kaltora also announced the acquisition of the PathFactory company from the USA, in the field of artificial intelligence for content analysis and automation of customer experiences for organizations. The company stated that the purchase was intended to accelerate the development of Kaltora from a video experience platform to a full platform of smart digital experiences, based on AI agents. The acquired company works with leading brands, including Nvidia and LG.

9:10

Asia

In Asia, the stock markets are trading in a mixed trend this morning. The stock market in South Korea climbed by about 1.6%, led by the chip manufacturers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics – both partners of the chip giant Nvidia – after CEO Jensen Huang’s optimistic forecast regarding the company’s sales in the field of chips. At the same time, the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell by about 0.2%, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange advanced by about 0.2% and the Shanghai Stock Exchange fell by about 0.8%.

Wall Street

On Wall Street, which last Friday marked three consecutive weeks of declines, the leading indices registered a considerable recovery yesterday: the Nasdaq index jumped by about 1.4%, the S&P 500 advanced by about 1.2% and the Dow Jones added to its value by about 1%. This morning, the futures contracts on Wall Street register declines of up to 0.5%, amid the conflicting messages coming from the Trump administration regarding The expected continuation of the war, as well as a Reuters report that the Gulf countries are pressuring President Trump to continue attacking Iran.

The increases came at the same time as a certain relief in the oil price sector, after they rose at the beginning of the trading day to a level of about $106 for Brent oil and about $100 for American oil – although even after the decreases, prices still remained at a high level, with Brent oil locked around $100 per barrel. The declines that were finally recorded in oil prices came, among other things, following the statement of American Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, according to which the United States allows Iranian oil tankers to pass through the Straits of Hormuz.

In addition, President Trump stated during a press conference that soon, the names of the countries that agreed to help the US protect oil tankers passing through the Straits of Hormuz will be announced. “We have countries that are really enthusiastic. They are already coming. They have already started the road there,” said Trump. “We will give you a list. Some are very enthusiastic, and some less enthusiastic, and I guess some won’t. I think we have one or two that will not, countries that we have been protecting for about 40 years at a cost of tens of billions of dollars.” Trump also attacked those who did not express willingness to participate and said: “We strongly encourage the other countries to get involved in this, and to get involved quickly and with a lot of enthusiasm.”

David Krakauer, vice president of portfolio management at Mercer Advisors, told CNBC that “I think the market really feels that Trump has the markets’ best interest in mind for the long term. The market is still somewhat leaning on the thought that he could end this if he really wanted to, to the extent that things start to deteriorate.”

CNBC noted that the declines recorded since the start of the war against Iran in the S&P 500 were moderate in relation to geopolitical tensions, when as of Friday’s close, the American flagship index was only about 5% away from its peak. Senior strategist Ed Jordani wrote in a message to investors that “the outstanding resilience of the S&P 500 index is attributed to the growing optimism among industry analysts regarding the companies’ profits in 2026 and 2027.” Yordani expressed reservations and hinted that the optimism may be a little exaggerated: “Apparently, they did not receive the memo regarding the possible negative consequences of a prolonged war and closing the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.

All the sectoral indices of the S&P 500 traded in the green yesterday, with the gains led by the IT sector, which includes the major technology stocks. Among the stocks that rose, you can find some of the main names in the fields of chips and AI:

stock Nvidia Tipsa, ahead of the GTC conference led by the company, during which CEO Jensen Huang spoke. Huang said, among other things, that he expects the backlog of orders for Nvidia’s advanced chip, Blackwell, and the AI computing platform Vera Rubin, to reach one trillion dollars by 2027. Bloomberg reported that the company had previously predicted that the chips would generate sales worth $500 billion by the end of the year 2026. Thus, the latest forecast, presented by CEO Jensen Huang during the GTC event, extends this forecast by another year.

At the same time, there were increases in shares Amazon , Meta , Micron , Broadcom , AMD , Intel and more. Meta’s stock jumped, after a report was published – which the company called “speculative” – ​​according to which it plans to lay off more than 20% of its workforce.

US debt market

In the American debt market, there has been a downward trend in the last few days, although yesterday the prices actually rose and the yields fell significantly, at the same time as the reduction in oil prices. The ten-year yield fell by about 7 basis points to a level of 4.21%, although it is still significantly far from its level on the eve of the outbreak of the war in Iran, when it stood at 3.96%. In general, yields have climbed in recent days due to fears that the rise in oil prices will rekindle inflation and thus postpone interest rate cuts.

The commodity and currency markets

Against the background of the increases recorded on Wall Street, the shekel strengthened against the dollar yesterday by almost 1%, and its rate stood at NIS 3.11. This morning, the shekel weakened by about 0.2% and the exchange rate stands at NIS 3.12.

At the same time, the dollar, which has been on a strengthening trend in the world recently, due to the influx of investors to “safe haven” assets, lost its height yesterday. The dollar index (DXY), which measures its strength against a basket of selected currencies, fell by about 0.7%. This morning, it strengthened again by about 0.4%.

As mentioned, oil prices had a volatile day yesterday. After the prices jumped to the level of about $106 for Brent oil and about $100 for American oil, they later changed direction and went down. This morning, in view of the mixed messages coming from the Trump administration regarding the duration of the war, prices are climbing again: Brent oil is up about 4% and is trading at $104 per barrel, while American oil is up about 5% and is trading at about $97.

Chris Watling, global economist and chief market strategist at Longview Economics, told CNBC yesterday that “Before this conflict started, I thought the situation looked great for the markets this year and for the global economy in general. The problem is that we are currently in a binary situation. I would not be surprised if the price of oil jumps to $200, or even $250, because commodity prices go up in a parabolic way when there is a shortage of supply.”

Watling added that “in such an environment, there will be serious damage to the global economy and you have to completely change your investment portfolio. The point is that you are at one or the other end of the spectrum. So what do you do about it? I think that you basically have to be very agile, and adjust the risk positions very quickly. And of course, there are people who are not able to do this, so it becomes very difficult.”

Also in the commodity market, gold concluded a consecutive Wednesday of declines and traded hourly at a price of about $5,000 per ounce. This is the longest streak of declines summed up by the precious metal since November 2025. Thus, the price of gold is about 6% away from the peak recorded at the end of January, when it stood at more than $5,300 per ounce.

In the crypto market, Bitcoin recovered yesterday, at the same time as the stock market, and traded around $74,000 – a six-week high.

Macro

In the USA, tomorrow (Wednesday) evening the Federal Reserve will publish its interest rate decision for the month of March, when among analysts there is a broad consensus that the interest rate is expected to remain unchanged, at a level of 3.75%.

Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a message to investors yesterday that the bank’s economists expect the central bank to emphasize in its decision an “increased level of geopolitical uncertainty”, but believe that it will “avoid any significant change in the policy outlook for the near term”.

In recent days, following the upheaval in oil prices, expectations in the markets for further interest rate cuts this year have been almost completely cut. The Financial Times reported at the end of last week that according to trading in futures contracts on the Federal Reserve interest rate, the markets now do not expect interest rate cuts until the summer of next year. Gennady Goldberg, head of US interest rate strategy at TD Securities, told the financial website that “it was a crazy change. The market went completely crazy and decided to cut a lot of interest rate cuts in its pricing. This huge move is a function of the fact that the market is betting that it will be difficult for the Fed to cut interest rates while oil prices remain high.”