STORY: U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow gaining half a percent, the S&P 500 climbing more than three-quarters of a percent and the Nasdaq adding 1.3%.A news report that Iran had signaled openness to talks, and a pledge by President Donald Trump to steady oil markets, calmed investor anxiety about the Middle East clash.But Adam Coons, chief investment officer at Winthrop Capital Management, said strong earnings and economic data are what's really powering stocks.“Aside from some smaller - and I don't mean to downplay certain things that are obviously big globally - but from a market standpoint, from what affects revenue, earnings and that sort of thing, there's really nothing major hitting. To the contrast, I think we're getting data that's showing that the US economy especially is continuing to be really resilient. Consumers resilient, jobs resilient. So I think that's going to continue to be the real story for markets.”Stocks on the move Wednesday included Moderna, which jumped 16% after the company agreed to pay up to two-and-a-quarter billion dollars to settle a long-running legal fight over a COVID-19 vaccine patent.Shares of Broadcom, up more than 1% at the close, climbed further in extended trading after the chip designer forecast second-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates.And shares of identity security company Okta, down 1% at the close, recovered that loss as shares moved higher in extended trading.The stock gains came despite the company projecting single-digit growth for the first time since its 2017 IPO as economic uncertainty weighs on enterprise technology spending. Okta's revenue for its previous fiscal quarter, however, rose 11%, beating analysts' estimates.