After opening in negative territory, the Dow Jones (DJIA) is now trading higher as investors assess developments in the Middle East.
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Earlier this week, Iran threatened to leave the Strait of Hormuz closed after Israel launched missile strikes on Lebanon. Iran also said that the attack violated its ceasefire with the U.S. In a sign of cooling tensions, officials from Israel and Lebanon are now set to meet in Washington, D.C., next week to discuss peace terms, according to Axios. U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, and Lebanese ambassador to the U.S. Nada Muawad will lead the negotiations.
Still, traffic through Hormuz remains extremely restricted, with Iran limiting daily volume to 15 vessels, a senior Iranian official told Russia’s TASS News Agency. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh added that the passageway is unable to support full capacity due to mines located in shipping routes. “Anybody who communicates with the Iranian authority has got permission to pass,” Khatibzadeh told ITV News.
Over the past 24 hours, only six vessels have transited through the waterway, well below the average prewar daily volume of 135 vessels. Of the six vessels, only one was an oil tanker.
Elsewhere, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index rose 0.4% in February, unchanged from January and matching the consensus estimate. Year-over-year PCE growth was also in line with the estimate, rising by 2.8% compared to 2.8% in the prior month.
Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, rose 0.4% month-over-month and 3.0% year-over-year. Both figures matched their respective estimates. The data points show that inflation was elevated even before the standstill at Hormuz caused oil and gas prices to surge.
The Dow Jones is up by 0.52% at the time of writing.
Which Stocks are Moving the Dow Jones?
Let’s pivot to TipRanks’ Dow Jones Heatmap, which illustrates the stocks that have contributed to the index’s price action.
Within the tech sector, software continues to face pressure, with IBM (IBM) and Salesforce (CRM) both deep in the red. Nvidia (NVDA) is leading the sector higher, although its shares are still down by 3% year-to-date.
Elsewhere, Amazon (AMZN) is the top performer within the index after CEO Andy Jassy reiterated the company’s 2026 capital expenditure guidance of $200 billion. Much of that will go toward AI infrastructure. Furthermore, all three consumer defensive stocks are trading higher amid optimism for peace in the Middle East.
Is the Dow Jones a Good Long-Term Investment?
The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) is an exchange-traded fund designed to track the movement of the Dow Jones. As a result, DIA is rising alongside the Dow Jones today.
Wall Street believes that DIA stock has room to rise. During the past three months, analysts have issued an average DIA price target of $560.22, implying upside of 16.32% from current prices. The 30 holdings in DIA carry 30 buy ratings, zero hold ratings, and zero sell ratings.