US stocks rally and return to where they were before the US-Iran war
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 3 hours AGO
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rallied Monday and recovered the last of their losses caused so far by the U.S.-Iran war, as Wall Street remains hopeful that the global economy can still avoid a worst-case scenario.
The S&P 500 rose 1% and is back to where it was before the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, just 1.3% below its all-time high set early this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 301 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2%.
Even in the oil market, where prices jumped above $100 per barrel after ceasefire talks over the weekend failed to end the war, prices pared their leaps as Monday progressed. The moves for financial markets overall were much more modest than the extreme swings that have hit since the war began.
Markets have been pinballing between worries that the war will last a long time and hopes for a resolution because all the parties would benefit from a freer flow of crude oil.
After the weekend’s talks failed, President Donald Trump announced a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which raises the pressure on Iran by trying to prevent it from making money by selling oil.
A blockade would keep even more oil off the global market, after prices already jumped for everyone worldwide because of Iran’s restrictions on traffic in the important strait. The narrow waterway is how much of the oil produced in the Persian Gulf area reaches customers worldwide.
Iran responded by threatening all ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Afterward, the price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 4.4% to settle at $99.36 and is well above its roughly $70 level from before the war.
But it remains below the $119 peak it’s touched at times, when worries about the U.S.-Iran war have been at their heights. It also pulled back from its nearly $104 price reached earlier Monday morning.
“Markets are taking some encouragement from the fact that the two sides are talking and that the broader ceasefire seems to be holding, for now,” according to Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.