S&P 500 opens higher as Nvidia rallies on AI infrastructure deal

S&P 500 opens higher as Nvidia rallies on AI infrastructure deal

Tue, August 11, 2026 at 4:48 PM GMT+3 2 min read

U.S. stocks opened higher Tuesday, with Nvidia stock leading gains as investors weighed mixed signals on the Middle East conflict and awaited a key inflation report due Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 126 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1%. Nvidia stock gained more than 1%, providing critical support to the S&P 500 after the company announced Monday a partnership with six major asset managers aimed at channeling over $500 billion into artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Oil prices swung earlier in the session before stabilizing. Brent crude futures touched $90 a barrel in early trading as hopes for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz faded following new demands from both Iran and President Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal. Oil pulled back after Bloomberg quoted Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asif as saying Washington and Tehran were close to an agreement, while separately a Qatari foreign ministry official indicated that Oman and Iran were engaged in substantive discussions about strait navigation rights. Brent crude was last trading around $87 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were at $81 a barrel.

Iran said it is closing in on a deal with Oman to reopen the strait, but has continued to resist direct negotiations with the U.S. Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, stated Sunday that talks could not resume while Washington remains in breach of the June memorandum of understanding and has yet to provide compensation for those breaches, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.

The calming of oil markets helped pull government bond yields back down from their earlier advance. At one point during Tuesday's session, yields on the 10-year and 30-year Treasuries had climbed toward levels last seen at their 2026 closing peaks, according to the Journal. The 10-year yield later fell to 4.672%.

Overseas, South Korea's Kospi closed 0.73% higher and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.19%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.03% and mainland China's CSI 300 dropped 0.79%. European indexes including the FTSE 100, CAC 40 and DAX all traded below the flatline.

Attention now shifts to the July consumer price index, set for release Wednesday, with the producer price index to follow on Thursday.