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Update: US Equity Indexes Rise Amid Amazon-Fueled Gains in Consumer Discretionary While Crude Oil Trades Off Session Highs

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(Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data and geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)

US equity indexes rose following a lift by standout gainers consumer discretionary and communication services, and as President Donald Trump signaled an agreement between Israel and militant group Hamas.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.1% to 25,396.2, with the S&P 500 up 0.8% to 7,499.1 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher by 0.7% to 52,590.6 ahead of Friday's close.

Consumer discretionary catapulted 6%, and communication services soared 4.3%, outweighing a retreat led by materials in the final leg of trading.

Amazon's (AMZN) web services cloud-computing unit reported overnight the fastest sales growth in 18 quarters, helping the e-commerce giant handily exceed market expectations for Q2 earnings and revenue. Shares soared 15%, the top gainer on the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dow, even as the retailer expanded its full-year 2026 capital expenditure guidance by about $20 billion to $220 billion.

Apple (APPL), meanwhile, sank 8.4%, among the worst performers on the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dow. The company missed market estimates for iPad and services revenue overnight in fiscal Q3, after recently raising prices for MacBooks and iPads amid surging memory and storage chip costs.

In geopolitical news, President Donald Trump said the US has an "understanding" with Israel to start implementing an agreement in Gaza that would require Israeli forces to withdraw and Hamas to give up its weapons, a critical step in implementing a multi-phase peace plan to end the war, according to CNN.

A senior Hamas official told CNN that the militant group had agreed to the deal with the US-backed Board of Peace, contingent on Israel upholding its obligations. Hamas has never before agreed to a specific plan to hand over its weapons, according to CNN.

The front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed 1.2% to $84.63 a barrel, and global benchmark North Sea Brent advanced 1.2% to $90.12 a barrel. Both crude types traded off their respective session highs.

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