Stock market today: Dow gains, S&P 500 and Nasdaq drop to start pivotal week as markets weigh Iran peace odds

The US stock market began Monday’s trading session on mixed footing as investors prepared for the busiest week of earnings for the quarter and digested a potential deal offer from Tehran to Washington.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained roughly 0.1%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) traded 0.1% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped roughly 0.3%.

Axios reported Monday morning that Iran has offered to open the Strait of Hormuz and end the Gulf conflict if the US agrees to push talks over Tehran’s nuclear program down the road. Yet the nuclear program remains key to US ambitions for a new deal with Iran, and traffic through the critical waterway remains near zero.

Dominating headlines this week will be earnings from five out of seven “Magnificent Seven” Big Tech leaders, and a policy decision from the Federal Reserve in what is likely to be Jerome Powell’s last meeting as chair.

Microsoft shares dropped at the open after the company said it would no longer maintain exclusive access to OpenAI, also announcing an end to a revenue-sharing agreement between the two tech firms.

Oil prices ticked up Monday morning as diplomatic progress between the US and Iran remained elusive and the two sides’ dual blockade kept shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz near zero.

Futures on Brent crude (BZ=F), the international benchmark, gained 1.9% on the session to hold above the key $100 per barrel mark, while those on US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CL=F) notched a similar jump to trade above $96 per barrel.

Iran has reportedly offered Washington a new off-ramp to the conflict, Axios reported Monday morning, with a proposal to extend the current ceasefire between the two sides and reopen the Strait of Hormuz while pushing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program to a later date.

However, Iran’s nuclear program has remained a key red line for the Trump administration, which is looking for a near-complete dismantling of Tehran’s uranium enrichment capabilities and a surrender of the country’s current stores of nuclear material.

Progress forward on potential second-round negotiations between Washington and Tehran fell apart over the weekend after the White House canceled a trip to Pakistan for Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the trio that has been leading talks for the US.

United Airlines (UAL) CEO Scott Kirby said Monday that talks about a potential merger with American Airlines (AAL) had ended, writing in a public statement that “without a willing partner, something this big simply can’t get done.”

United fell by less than 1% in premarket trading, while American gained less than 1%.

In a long statement shared by the airline early Monday morning, Kirby confirmed he had approached American Airlines in recent weeks about a potential merger that could create a “truly great airline that customers love.”

Yet American, instead of talking with United, “declined to engage and instead responded by publicly closing the door,” Kirby wrote. Shortly after initial news reports that Kirby was pitching a merger, American Airlines said they were not interested in such a plan.

In comments on American’s first quarter earnings call, CEO Robert Isom said such a plan would be “bad for customers, bad for the industry and ultimately, that would be bad for American Airlines.”

“The idea of the two largest airlines in the world getting together, that is something that we’ve viewed as being anti-competitive and obviously everybody that has weighed in suggests the same thing,” Isom said.