Wall Street higher, Trump warns Iran, ASX set to retreat
Stan Choe
Updated ,first published
US stocks rose on hesitant trading ahead of President Donald Trump’s deadline to bomb Iranian power plants.
The S&P 500 index rose 0.4 percent, achieving its first win in the last six weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 165 points, or 0.4 percent, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.5 percent. The Australian stock market will rise, with futures pointing to a 24-point, or 0.3 percent, rise at the open. The Australian dollar was trading at US$69.17 at 7.05am (AEST).
Oil prices also rose shakily throughout the day due to uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how much it will slow down the global flow of oil and natural gas. Iran rejected the latest ceasefire proposal on Monday, saying instead it wanted a permanent end to the war. Crude oil prices rose; Brent, the international standard, rose 0.5 percent to $109.67 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate rose 1.1 percent to $112.76.
“We will not just accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. “We accept the end of the war only with the guarantee that we will not be attacked again.”
Meanwhile, fighting continued in the war, including an Israeli attack on a petrochemical facility in Iran. And in the background was the clock ticking towards the deadline, with Trump threatening to attack Iranian power plants if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz. In peacetime, one fifth of the world’s oil usually passes through the strait.
Trump suggested on Monday that the Tuesday 8th deadline would be the deadline, saying he had already given enough extensions. “The whole country could be taken out in one night, and that night could be tomorrow night,” Trump said.
Monday also offered U.S. stock prices the first chance to react to a report released on Friday that said U.S. employers hired more workers last month than economists expected. The unemployment rate unexpectedly improved.
They provide encouraging signals for an economy that has had to absorb painful jumps in gasoline costs since the beginning of the war. According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline nationwide is about $4.12. The figure was below US$3 just days before the US and Israel launched an offensive to start the war in late February.
The pain has been worse for countries that do not produce as much oil as the United States. This is because they are more dependent on oil from the Middle East and the war has blocked most of the crude oil produced in the Persian Gulf region. This oil usually leaves the Strait of Hormuz and reaches customers around the world.
On Wall Street, the divided performance of Big Tech stocks, which dominate the US market, kept things in check. Apple increased by 1.1 percent and Amazon increased by 1.4 percent. Tesla fell 2.2 percent and Microsoft fell 0.2 percent.
Bank stocks were strong, including JPMorgan Chase’s gain of 1.3 percent.
The U.S. economy remains resilient and businesses still look healthy, CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual letter to shareholders on Monday. But he also acknowledged that the prices of stocks and other assets were high; This could mean that “less than positive outcomes could have a dramatic impact on global markets.”
Overall, the S&P 500 rose 29.14 points to 6,611.83 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 165.21 to 46,669.88, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 117.16 to 21,996.34.
In the bond market, Treasury yields have remained relatively stable. The 10-year Treasury bond yield was at 4.33 percent. This rate is still well above the pre-war level of 3.97 percent. The increase increased rates on mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slowed the economy.
Other U.S. businesses in the financial, transportation and services sectors posted growth for the 21st consecutive month in March, a report released Monday said. But growth was slightly slower than economists expected, with one measure of prices accelerating at the fastest pace since 2022, sending a potentially discouraging signal for inflation.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 0.5 percent and South Korea’s Kospi index gained 1.4 percent.
AP, Bloomberg
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