SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Coach Steve Kerr still believes Stephen Curry could return to the Golden State Warriors before the regular season ends after missing two months with a right knee injury.
“Sure, yeah, absolutely,” Kerr said Tuesday, when Curry participated in a full practice on his troublesome knee and did 5-on-5 scrimmaging but it was a light session for the team returning from a road trip.
The 38-year-old Curry won't play in a home game Wednesday night against San Antonio and isn't expected to return in the back-to-back Thursday versus Cleveland.
That would leave five games remaining in the regular season, and Curry is highly unlikely to play on consecutive nights for the Warriors, who are headed for the play-in tournament. He has missed the last 25 games since playing against Detroit on Jan. 30.
“It’s a good step for him. He won’t play tomorrow,” Kerr said. “It’s just a progression from here, so if he’s feeling well we’ll scrimmage again and we’ll just go from there.”
Kerr said Tuesday's session was all drill work both offensively and defensively, “half-speed.”
After a 116-93 loss at Denver on Sunday night, the Warriors dropped to 13-23 this season without Curry — including 9-16 during this stretch with him sidelined by patellofemoral pain syndrome.
Golden State is 13-24 without Jimmy Butler, going 11-20 since his season-ending right knee injury that required surgery in February for a torn ACL.
Curry's presence provides an immediate lift. He leads the Warriors in scoring with 27.2 points per game and the original hope had been he would return after the All-Star break.
“It's amazing, man, just to have him out there with us, it's always great. We have a lot more confidence when we have a guy like Steph out on the court, no doubt about it,” forward Gui Santos said, noting how valuable Curry is even when he's not in uniform. “I hope he's out there with us soon, it's going to be great.”
Even if the intensity wasn't like a typical practice, Kerr knows how much it means to all of the Warriors to have the two-time NBA MVP back on the floor in any capacity.
“The gym was bouncier," he said, "everyone’s spirits are lifted when he’s playing."
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Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry looks on from the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks Monday, March 23, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry watches from the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry watches from the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks surged to their best day since last spring, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,125 points on Tuesday as doubt swung back to hope on Wall Street about a possible end to the war with Iran.
The S&P 500 leaped 2.9% for its largest gain since May. Just a day before, worries about the war had sent the main measure of Wall Street’s health more than 9% below its all-time high set early this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 2.5%, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 3.8%.
The rebound came as financial markets seized on a couple tenuous signals for hope about a possible end to the war. It’s the latest manic swing following weeks of frenetic back and forth amid uncertainty about the war. The moves also came as Wall Street marked the end of the year’s first quarter, a milestone that can cause a flurry of trading as fund managers close their books.
Analysts said optimism entered markets overnight following a report from The Wall Street Journal saying President Donald Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. The strait is a narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, and a fifth of the world’s oil sails through it on a typical day.
Oil prices then took a sudden and sharp turn lower in midday trading following a news report from the Middle East quoting Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian as saying 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.
Following Tuesday’s possible signals of hope, the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, eased 3.2% to settle at $103.97. Benchmark U.S. crude erased a gain from the morning and fell 1.5% to settle at $101.38.
Oil prices could quickly revert to spiking, to be sure, and stocks could get back to falling if tankers carrying crude can’t get through the strait easily. Iran attacked a fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker in the Persian Gulf in the latest fighting in the region.
And oil prices have already shot high enough that inflation in Europe accelerated to 2.5% in March, up from February’s 1.9%.
In the United States, the average price for a gallon of gasoline topped $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022. That’s squeezing budgets for U.S. households and preventing spending on other things. Worries about that and pressured profit margins for companies meant the S&P 500 closed Tuesday with its worst loss for a quarter since the summer of 2022.
The 4.6% loss would have been even worse if not for Tuesday’s easing for oil prices, which helped stocks of companies that have big fuel bills. United Airlines soared 8.1%, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holding steamed 5.9% higher to trim their losses for the year so far.
Tech stocks were the strongest forces lifting the market in a widespread rally where four out of every five stocks within the S&P 500 rose. Marvell Technology shot up 12.8% after Nvidia invested $2 billion in the company and announced a partnership with it. Nvidia rose 5.6% and was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500.
Centessa Pharmaceuticals soared 44% after Eli Lilly said it was buying the company working on treatments for excessive daytime sleepiness and other neurological conditions. Lilly, which is paying up to $7.8 billion if certain conditions are met, rose 3.7%
They helped offset a 6.1% drop for McCormick. The spice company is buying most of Unilever’s food business, including such brands as Hellmann’s, for cash and stock valuing it at $44.8 billion.
All told, the S&P 500 jumped 184.80 points to 6,528.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1,125.37 to 46,341.51, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 795.99 to 21,590.63.
They benefited from easing pressure from the bond market, where Treasury yields sank again. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.31% from 4.35% late Monday and from 4.44% at the end of last week. That’s a significant move for the bond market.
Lower yields should pull downward on rates for mortgages and other loans for U.S. households and businesses, which have been screaming higher since the war began. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was at just 3.97% in late February, before worries about high oil prices pushed traders to erase bets for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve this year.
Yields remained lower following a couple reports Tuesday on the U.S. economy that came in better than economists expected. One said confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly improved. The other said U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of February than expected, though fewer than the month before.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a tougher finish in Asia. South Korea’s Kospi fell 4.3%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.6% for two of the bigger moves.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Bobby Charmak works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
James Denaro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Christopher Lagana works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - Liberia-flagged tanker Shenlong Suezmax, carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia, that arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, file)
A currency trader reacts near a screen showing international oil prices at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 31, 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, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top 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, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone 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, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
