Peace Holds. With the Iran cease-fire still seemingly intact, oil prices retreated today, giving the market some room to run.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1%, while the The S&P 500 gained 0.8%. Both closed at fresh records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 357 points, or 0.7%.

While there has been no real uptick in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the fact that the cease-fire remains in effect was enough to temper oil prices on Tuesday. Brent crude was hovering near $110 per barrel when the market closed, while the domestic benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, was around $103 per barrel. Prices at the pump, however, ticked up to an average of $4.50 per gallon nationwide today—the highest level this year, according to GasBuddy.

The economic data released today were mixed. The Institute for Supply Management’s services purchasing managers’ index—which serves as a measure of the economic health of the U.S. service sector—came in a touch lower than expected at 53.6. That’s a slight pullback from March, and the underlying data had both pluses and minuses. There was a 7.1-point decline in the index for new orders, but increases in the business activity and employment components. Elsewhere, March new home sales came in higher than consensus expectations at 682,000.

Chip stocks surged today ahead of earnings from two major AI players. After the close, Super Micro reported mixed financial results for its fiscal third quarter, but the stock was still up 13% in late trading. Advanced Micro Devices, on the other hand, reported solid first-quarter earnings and sounded ebullient about AI. Its shares, up 60% this year, were rising sharply in after-hours trading.

The Hot Stock: Waters Corp. +13.5%
The Biggest Loser: Huntington Ingalls Industries -10.3%

Best Sector: Materials +1.7%
Worst Sector: Financials +0.0%

Graduating college and finding a job is an incredibly stressful proposition these days. It’s much harder for younger workers to find jobs than it is for those with experience—even when armed with a college degree.

The unemployment rate among recent college graduates didn’t shift much in the first quarter, hovering around 5.6% in March, according to the latest data released by the Federal Bank of New York on Tuesday.

Americans who recently earned their bachelor’s degree have faced a challenging job market for several years. Heightened economic and policy uncertainty has kept many employers from making big hiring pushes, plus there’s a continuing skills mismatch between retiring workers and younger entrants. In some fields, companies have also cited the adoption of artificial intelligence as a reason for lower rates of entry-level hiring.

While unemployment among recent graduates is still notably higher than the 4.3% national average, there are signs that more stable conditions could be ahead. The latest unemployment print for recent college grads is a bit lower than the four-year high of 5.8% reported in April 2025 and then again in September, according to the NY Fed data.

The contraction in the number of available positions for younger workers may also be showing some early signs of easing. Demand for interns has picked up, and recent grads are finding jobs faster now than they did a year ago.

Underemployment among recent grads—which measures people holding jobs that don’t make use of their skills or degrees, or don’t offer full employment—has also edged down over the past four months to 41.5% in March, the NY Fed reported.

The recent stabilization of younger worker employment is tentative and could be short-lived if oil prices remain elevated. Young workers are disproportionately employed in industries like retail and leisure—sectors that are reliant on consumer spending, the Bank of America Institute’s Liz Everett Krisberg and David Tinsley wrote in a note last month.

If gasoline prices remain elevated for a prolonged period, it could squeeze household finances and cause a pullback in spending. That could send job prospects for younger workers tumbling once again.

Walt Disney will report results tomorrow morning. It will be the first quarterly earnings call under new CEO Josh D’Amaro. The consensus among Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet calls for adjusted earnings of $1.49 a share on revenue of $24.84 billion, according to FactSet.

ADP also releases its National Employment Report for April. Economists expect private payrolls rose to 95,000 from 62,000 in March.

• Intel Stock Is Surging. Potential Chip Deal With a Huge Customer Is Providing a Lift.

• AI Data Centers Need Electricians Desperately. What Stocks Win.

• SEC Proposes Rule to Ditch Quarterly Reports

• Trump Isn’t Backing Down on Tariffs. European Autos Show It.

• GameStop Is Smaller Than eBay. Little Fish Can Gobble Up Big Ones.

• Buying a Home Got a Little Cheaper in the First Quarter. Where Prices Are Falling the Most.

Barron’s Live returns on Monday. Barron’s Live features timely and actionable insights for investors. We give you behind-the-scenes conversations with the newsroom, connecting you with our editors and reporters covering the markets, the economy, and more.

Sign up here