Stocks jump with chipmakers; oil rises to 5-week high

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Ankur Banerjee

NEW YORK/SINGAPORE, July 21 (Reuters) - Major stock indexes rose on Tuesday with the Nasdaq and chipmaker shares surging, while oil prices climbed to a five-week high amid rising tensions in the Iran conflict. 

The Japanese yen weakened 0.41% against the greenback to 163.14 per dollar, breaching the 163 mark for the first time since December 1986 as traders braced for possible intervention in the currency by the Japanese government.

Two oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea after threats from Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis.

Brent futures rose $1.79, or 2.0%, to settle at $91.01 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained $1.68, or 2.0%, to settle at $84.91. It was the highest close for Brent since June 10 and for WTI since June 11.

"Investors are not necessarily thinking the war is going to end anytime soon," said Bruce Zaro, managing director at Granite Wealth Management in Plymouth, Massachusetts, but he said the conflict's impact on oil prices may be seen as overdone.

Investors are also focused on corporate earnings this week, with results from Intel, Alphabet and others still due. Market watchers are interested in whether the AI trade has more room to run, given sky-high profit expectations for the second quarter.

"We had a tremendous move up in Q2 in the stock market, and now investors are looking at earnings to see if they justify the move up," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York.

Tech stocks, and in particular semiconductor shares, have consolidated and now are bouncing off support, he noted.

An index of semiconductors ended 5.2% higher. The index ended Friday more than 20% below its late-June record closing high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 385.38 points, or 0.74%, to 52,224.64, the S&P 500 rose 65.92 points, or 0.89%, to 7,509.20 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 329.13 points, or 1.29%, to 25,837.21.

European stocks rose, with technology and mining shares gaining. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.56%.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 11.58 points, or 1.05%, to 1,117.08.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields reached a two-month high as traders added to bets that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 3.41 basis points to 4.632% and reached 4.640%, the highest since May 20.

The Fed held interest rates steady at its June meeting, but policymakers signaled they expect to raise borrowing costs later this year amid growing concern that inflation remains lodged above the central bank's 2% target.

Trade was also in the spotlight. The Canadian dollar weakened 0.27% versus the greenback to C$1.411 per dollar, after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled plans for 50% tariffs on a range of imports from Canada in retaliation for what he described as discriminatory treatment of American-made cars, alcohol and dairy goods.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Trump agreed to intensify trade negotiations after speaking on Tuesday, but warned he would consider all options if the tariffs Trump threatened on Monday go ahead.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.17% to 101.16, with the euro down 0.11% at $1.1402. The greenback was on pace for its longest streak of daily gains since mid-May.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York and Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; additional reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Amanda Cooper, Anil D'Silva and Nick Zieminski)