Stocks rose for the fourth-consecutive session as traders vacillated between hopes for a ceasefire and fears of an escalation.

Your Evening Briefing

April 06, 2026

Stocks maintain gains after whipsawing as traders digest war updates

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 managed to maintain gains, and oil rose amid a volatile session. Traders vacillated between hopes for a ceasefire and fears of an escalation after President Trump said the entire country of Iran could be taken out in one night, "maybe tomorrow.”

Friday’s jobs report showed that US hiring surged in March, as job growth of 178,000 crushed estimates of 65,000, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped to 4.3%, below the 4.4% expected by economists.

This was statistically the most boring trading day in US stocks since the war began.

The daily range in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF as a share of the previous session’s closing price was just 64 basis points. That’s the least volatile intraday action since February 25 — before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Consumer discretionary was the best-performing sector, while utilities fared the worst.

Bitcoin managed to cross $70,000 for the first time in April, but couldn’t maintain the level.

Stocks that moved higher:

  • Theater chain AMC spiked after Nintendo’s “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” delivered holiday weekend records.
  • Memory stocks Seagate Technology Holdings, Micron, Western Digital, and Sandisk climbed as momentum returned and fears over Google’s Turboquant algorithm dissipated.
  • AppLovin surged as Wells Fargo boosted its price target to $560 from $543.
  • Applied Optoelectronics jumped after a hyperscaler upped its purchase order by $71 million.
  • Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies rose as gains in ethereum outpaced the wider crypto industry. The company also said it’s been approved for uplisting to the New York Stock Exchange and will begin trading on the NYSE later this week.
  • BNY and Robinhood ticked higher after being tapped by the Treasury department to run “Trump accounts” for children. (Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company.)

Stocks that moved lower:

  • Lucid fell after saying Q1 deliveries of the Lucid Gravity were disrupted due to a supplier quality issue.
  • Roblox dropped as Wells Fargo lowered its price target on the stock to $78 from $97.
  • Petrochemicals stocks LyondellBasell and Dow, Inc. dipped after Bank of America downgraded the stocks to “underperform” from “neutral,” saying tailwinds from Mideast war are unsustainable.

OpenAI’s plan for an AGI world: AI for all and a 4-day work week

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The median price for a house in San Francisco is now $2.15 million, jumping 18% from last year. The AI startup boom is pushing what was already one of the most expensive housing markets to dizzying new heights. The median price for condos in the city jumped 27% to reach $1.36 million, according to data from Compass, reported by Bloomberg. 

  • Report: Some of Meta’s new AI models will eventually be open source
    Meta is racing to catch up to competitors after spending hundreds of millions assembling an all-star team of AI researchers. 
  • Netflix launches gaming app for children 8 and under
    Netflix is refocusing its gaming efforts away from indies and toward family-friendly titles.
  • Report: OpenAI on track to burn $85 billion in 2028, expects profitability by 2030
    As they race toward an IPO, OpenAI and Anthropic project staggering losses through the end of the decade, according to financials seen by The Wall Street Journal.  
  • Paramount reportedly receives $24 billion from Gulf funds to back its Warner Bros. takeover
    Saudi Arabia’s PIF will provide about $10 billion, according to Wall Street Journal reporting.
  • OpenAI’s leadership reportedly disagrees about when to raise money and how to spend it
    A strategic divide in the C-suite.
 

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