Wall Street Hits Record High as Hormuz Reopening Hopes Grow; S&P 500 Tops 7,700

The S&P 500 rose 1.8 percent on Tuesday, 20 Mordad 1405 (August 11, 2026), to top 7,700 for the first time, breaking its previous record of 7,620.90 set on June 2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.7 percent to a second straight record close of 54,085.88. The rally coincided with growing hopes for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and a wave of strong corporate earnings; Palantir Technologies jumped 29.5 percent after posting second quarter revenue of $1.94 billion, above forecasts. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday he expected a deal to happen "very shortly," while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC an agreement could come as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei described talks with Oman on designating safe shipping routes as "positive." Maritime traffic through Hormuz remains sharply reduced: ship tracking platform MarineTraffic recorded just nine transits on Sunday, compared with roughly 130 daily crossings before the war. The rally spread to Asia on Wednesday, 21 Mordad (August 12), with Tokyo's Nikkei 225 up 3.7 percent and Seoul's Kospi up 3.8 percent.