US equities rebounded to record highs on Friday as the strong earnings prospectives and robust labor market signals offset risks from the war in Iran. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were 0.5% higher at new records, while the Dow added over 100 points. Companies in the AI infrastructure and software space continued to rise after leading the rally this week. Their recent earnings cited stronger productivity and growing demand that is due to be undeterred by macroeconomic headwinds in the US economy. Strikes between Iran and US pushed back any hopes of a deal that restores energy supply from the Persian Gulf. Also, the jobs report pointed to back-to-back months of higher employment gain than expected, strengthening the rhetoric from hawkish FOMC members as higher core inflation and surging energy prices backed bets of a Fed hike this year. Tesla and Nvidia were over 1% higher, while AMD gained 2% to be on track for a 15% surge this week.
India’s BSE Sensex closed about 0.7% down at 77,328 on Friday, marking the second day of losses, as investor caution rose amid renewed US–Iran hostilities that pushed oil prices higher and ongoing corporate earnings. The US and Iran reportedly exchanged fire in the Middle East, although both sides downplayed the incident. President Trump insisted the truce remained in effect as Washington awaited Tehran’s response to a new peace proposal. Banking and financial stocks remained under pressure, while gains in IT and consumer-focused stocks helped limit losses. State Bank of India (SBI) dropped 6.6% after its quarterly earnings release failed to impress investors. Profits grew yoy in Q4FY26 but came in below analyst expectations. Banking peers such as HDFC Bank (-1.8%), Axis Bank (-1.8%) and ICICI Bank (-1%), all declined. On the upside, Titan Company climbed 4.8% and led gains, after reporting a more than 35% jump in consolidated net profit. For the week, the index logged a 0.5% gain.
