Stocks rebound, fueled by chip stocks, but gains limited on new Trump Iran threat: Live updates

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City.

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U.S. equities gained on Thursday, boosted by a rebound in chip stocks after recent pressure, but the advance was capped as U.S.-Iran tensions ramped up.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 320 points, or 0.6%.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures were last trading around the flatline at roughly $90 a barrel. Oil prices had risen earlier in the day after President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. will be attacking Iran "VERY HARD TONIGHT." He also said, "At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets."

This comes after U.S. Central Command forces launched more "self-defense strikes" against Iran late Wednesday, according to Centcom's post on social media platform X. The attacks came at the direction of Trump, according to the post.

"Markets don't seem to be fazed," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. "[The] inflation reports that we've gotten don't show that the higher price of oil is really pushing through to other areas, so the underpinnings of the economy are still fairly strong. That's all kind of status quo-ish for the markets."

The producer price index increased 1.1% in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. That's more than the 0.7% that economists polled by Dow Jones expected. Core inflation — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — stood at 0.4%, below the Dow Jones forecast for 0.5%.

The market was given momentum from a rebound in Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. The iShares Semiconductor ETF gained 3%. The chip ETF was under pressure again this week following a 10% drubbing on Friday that's called many investors to question whether the parabolic move in the sector was over. Intel was upgraded by Bank of America from underperform to buy on Thursday and the shares responded with a 4% gain.

Enthusiasm is building ahead of SpaceX's debut on Friday, which could highlight the expected growth in the AI buildout. Although some traders believe the recent chip weakness is due to investors selling the stocks in their portfolios to make room for the IPO, which will be the largest debut ever at a roughly $1.8 trillion valuation.

Still, not all of tech was a bright spot Thursday. Shares of Oracle dropped 11% as the software giant announced plans to raise an additional $20 billion in equity and debt to pay for its artificial intelligence buildout.

Stocks fell during the previous session, thanks to another rout in the chip sector and a ramp-up in tensions with Iran.