AC Milan edges Lazio to top Serie A and Yildiz nets two for Juventus

MILAN (AP) — Despite being without Christian Pulisic again, AC Milan managed to move to the top of Serie A after beating Lazio 1-0 on Saturday.

Rafael Leão scored the only goal early in the second half to see Milan leapfrog Napoli and Roma, who play each other on Sunday.

Milan moved a point above Roma and three above Napoli. Inter Milan, Bologna and Como are all a point further back.

The Rossoneri were buoyed by last weekend's derby victory over city and title rival Inter and were looking to take advantage of the top two facing each other on Sunday.

However, they were again without one of their best players as Pulisic — who had only just returned from injury — had a muscle strain.

Lazio made Mike Maignan pull off several good saves before Milan broke the deadlock in the 51st minute when Leão finished off a well-worked team move.

Deep in stoppage time there was chaos on the sidelines as an Alessio Romagnoli volley was charged down by the arm of Milan defender Strahinja Pavlovic in the penalty area, prompting a video review. Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri tore off his jacket as he was sent off for dissent along with Lazio's assistant coach.

The referee ruled the arm had been jutting out but Pavlovic had been fouled in the buildup.

Kenan Yildiz continued his fantastic form with two goals as Juventus fought back to beat Cagliari 2-1.

Yildiz had had a hand in all three goals midweek to help Juventus snatch a 3-2 victory at Bodø/Glimt and end a run of three straight draws in all competitions.

Cagliari stunned the home fans by taking the lead through Sebastiano Esposito but Yildiz leveled straight after play resumed following a one-two with Khephren Thuram.

And the 20-year-old Yildiz scored a fantastic goal in first-half stoppages, controlling the ball on the edge of the area before surging past two defenders and sweeping into the far bottom corner.

Juventus remained seventh, five points below Milan. Cagliari was 14th, just a point above the relegation zone.

Daniele De Rossi got his first win in charge of Genoa — following two action-packed draws — as they beat bottom club Hellas Verona 2-1 in a relegation battle.

Genoa moved a point above the drop zone, level with Cagliari and Parma, which lost 2-0 at home to Udinese after playing most of the second half with 10 men.

Verona remained four points from safety.

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Juventus's Kenan Yildiz scores their side's first goal of the game during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Juventus and Cagliari in Torino, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Juventus's Kenan Yildiz celebrates after scoring their side's first goal of the game during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Juventus and Cagliari in Torino, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

AC Milan's head coach Massimiliano Allegri gestures during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Lazio, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

AC Milan's Rafael Leao celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Lazio, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

AC Milan's Rafael Leao celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Lazio, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rushing higher worldwide, and oil prices are easing Wednesday as hopes build that the war with Iran could end soon. That's even though some of the signals investors saw as hopeful are already under dispute, and several prior bouts of optimism in financial markets quickly got undercut by continued, fierce fighting in the war.

The S&P 500 rallied 0.9% and added to its leap from the day before, which was its best since last spring. That followed even bigger gains for stock markets across Europe and Asia, including an 8.4% surge in South Korea, which were catching up to Wall Street’s rally from Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 294 points, or 0.6%, as of 2:08 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher.

Oil prices also fell back toward $100 per barrel after President Donald Trump said late Tuesday that the U.S. military could end its offensive in two to three weeks.

That added to optimism following a couple tenuous signals of hope from earlier Tuesday that Wall Street latched onto, including a news report quoting Iran’s president as saying that it has “the necessary will to end the war” as long as certain requirements are met, including “guarantees to prevent a recurrence of aggression.”

The worry on Wall Street has been that the war may last a long time and keep oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf out of global markets, which could create a brutal blast of inflation.

But hope has been quick to reverse to doubt on Wall Street, triggering manic swings back and forth for financial markets since the war with Iran began. Trump has also made statements that lifted markets, only to see the gains quickly disappear after increasing his military threats.

Shortly before Wall Street began trading on Wednesday, Trump claimed in a post on his social media network that Iran “has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!”

“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”

But Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, quickly called that claim “false and baseless,” according to a report on Iranian state television.

Oil prices also remain high, even if they’ve eased recently. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was sitting at $101.51 following its declines, which is still up from roughly $70 before the war began.

U.S. gasoline prices rose again overnight to a national average of $4.06 per gallon, according to the auto club AAA.

Iran, meanwhile, hit an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait’s airport on Wednesday while airstrikes battered Tehran as the fighting continued. Iran also continues to hold a grip on the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes during peacetime.

“De-escalation hopes have given markets a lift, but we think the effects of the war would, in many cases, persist even if the war did end soon,” Thomas Mathews, head of markets, Asia Pacific at Capital Economics, said in a research note Wednesday.

“It’s worth thinking through how markets might fare if the war were to end ‘very soon,’” he wrote. “Do markets have further to recover if sentiment continues to improve? The answer is almost certainly yes.”

The White House said Trump will deliver a public address Wednesday evening on the Iran war.

On Wall Street, most stocks rose as Big Tech powered the move higher. Gains of 3.8% for Alphabet and 0.8% for Nvidia were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

Eli Lilly climbed 5.1% after U.S. regulators approved its GLP-1 pill for weight loss.

Such gains have pulled the S&P 500, which sits at the heart of many 401(k) accounts, back to within 5.6% of its all-time high set early this year. Just on Monday, the index briefly neared a 10% drop from its record, a steep-enough fall that professional investors have a name for it: a “correction.”

Nike sank 14.5% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts said it gave some lackluster financial forecasts.

Hasbro fell 4.8% after the toy company found someone had gained unauthorized access to its computer network and is working to assess the full impact.

Energy companies fell broadly as oil prices eased. Exxon Mobil slumped 5% and Chevron fell 4.9%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes leaped more than 2% in France and Germany. Asian markets had even bigger gains.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 5.2% after a survey showed business sentiment for major Japanese manufacturers improved despite worries about the Iran war.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report said U.S. retailers made more money in February than economists expected. A separate report said U.S. manufacturing growth last month was slightly faster than economists expected.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.32% from 4.30% late Tuesday.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.

James Conti works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader reacts near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A screen displays financial information on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)