S&P 500, Nasdaq close at record highs, cap best quarter in over a year

S&P 500, Nasdaq close at record highs, cap best quarter in over a year

By Sabrina Valle

Mon June 30, 2025 5:02 PM

A continuing raft of soft data triggering hopes for rate cuts along with optimism over trade deals shot the indexes up again with the S&P today finally reaching a new record high after months of being down. The good news is that the 2^nd quarter has closed with gains all around, the S&P up 10.57%, the Nasdaq 17.75, the Dow 4.98%. The bad news is that Q1 was so bad that it is still the worst first-half in 3 years. There’s also the problem of more and more Republicans pushing back on Trump’s bills and policies and the tariffs continuing to create an awful lot of tension.

S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record closing highs amid trade negotiations, rate cut bets

S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record closing highs amid trade negotiations, rate cut bets

By Stephen Culp

Fri June 27, 2025 4:30 PM  

Today’s PCE data showing weakening consumer spending for a second day strengthened the case for the Fed to cut rates sooner than later and that among other weakening data sent stocks into very substantial 3-digit gains for a second day. The Dow rose over 600 points in the morning session but then, along with all the indexes, took a major dive at about 1 pm before beginning a recovery around 3 pm to close with still substantial gains. It was at about 1 pm when Trump announced the termination of trade negotiations with Canada.  

Wall Street ends higher on rate cuts, S&P 500, Nasdaq miss record highs

Wall Street ends higher on rate cuts, S&P 500, Nasdaq miss record highs

By Stephen Culp

Thu June 26, 2025 6:36 PM  

All the indexes trended straight up today with some more impressive 3-digit gains given the combo of the tenuous Israel-Iran truce continuing to hold and a variety of downgraded economic factors that gave rise to hopes of rate cuts sooner than later. Among such factors was a revised GDP showing more contraction than before, weaker consumer spending and jobless claims reaching multi-year highs suggesting cracks in the labor market. Stimulus also came by way of the Fed proposing to relax its leverage rules, which would make it easier for the banks to make riskier loans.  

Wall Street ends mixed amid cooling Middle East tensions; Powell in focus

Wall Street ends mixed amid cooling Middle East tensions; Powell in focus

By Stephen Culp

Wed June 25, 2025 4:29 PM

The Reuters analyst below referred to the day’s action as a “pause” but the charts tell a story of a day-long sell-off. There’s no mystery to this what with the uncertainty and murkiness surrounding the Israel-Iran situation with Trump claiming obliteration while the intelligence agencies saying at least preliminarily that the damage was modest and Tehran’s nuclear program is far from destroyed. The truce, though tenuous, continues to hold but there remains a lack of clarity about Iran. The S&P started in the black but ended flat while the Nasdaq had a much better day in the black all day though it fell from a morning high of +140 to close at less than half that.  

Wall St ends sharply higher, S&P 500 nears record high as Middle East tensions cool

Wall St ends sharply higher, S&P 500 nears record high as Middle East tensions cool

By Stephen Culp

Tue June 24, 2025 4:27 PM

Following on the heels of the U.S. attack on Iran which sparked a big rally yesterday, and despite the fact that the declared truce has already been violated by Israel, the fact that there is any cooling of the tensions at all caused another major rally today with both tech and industrials advancing with big 3-digit gains. Powell again restated his oft-quoted view that rate cuts can wait until we have a much clearer picture of the tariffs with the oddsmakers now putting July at 20% and September at 70%.  

Wall St ends higher as rate-cut hopes offset Iran war fears

Wall St ends higher as rate-cut hopes offset Iran war fears

By Stephen Culp

Mon June 23, 2025 4:39 PM

After posting respectable gains in the morning, all three indexes took a big dump at the noon hour going well into the red before almost immediately bouncing back to close with very nice 3-digit gains after all. There was a huge sigh of relief over Iran when uncertainty over an attack turned to certainty when the attack took place this weekend. There was more relief that Iran’s retaliation was not nearly as severe as feared and even more so that they did not move to close the Gulf of Hormuz, which would have seriously restricted oil supply.

S&P 500, Nasdaq end down; investors brace for more Middle East news

S&P 500, Nasdaq end down; investors brace for more Middle East news

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Fri June 20, 2025 4:00 PM

All three opened with gains but then quickly went into decline with tech hitting red as early as 10:30 and staying there while the Dow dipped into losses around 1:30 but then recovered to a very modest gain by close. The Reuters summary begins with the sentence, “Trading was choppy for much of the session.” No kidding, what with the U.S. threatening to attack Iran and now Iran refusing further negotiations until Israel stops its attacks.  

S&P 500 ends nearly flat, gives back gains; Fed's Powell says inflation to rise

S&P 500 ends nearly flat, gives back gains; Fed's Powell says inflation to rise

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Wed June 18, 2025 5:33 PM

All three indexes were up considerably in the morning, the Dow up some 300 by 11 a.m., then began a steady decline all day until 2:30 when suddenly all three plummeted. Yesterday, Trump very bluntly demanded unconditional surrender from Iran with a tangible threat of U.S. military attack. Today, Iran even more bluntly rejected that demand and promised serious reprisals against our bases if there is an attack. Could this announcement have come at 11 a.m.?  

Indexes end lower as Israel-Iran fighting raises investor anxiety

Indexes end lower as Israel-Iran fighting raises investor anxiety

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Tue June 17, 2025 6:52 PM

The day began with moderate losses in all three indexes until 1 pm when all three suddenly and very dramatically plummeted, just as they did Friday. Yesterday, the market recovered ebulliently from Friday’s crash due to the very slight hope for peace when Iran offered concessions to end the war by the Arab states putting the squeeze on Trump to make Israel end the war. Today, Trump responded to that move by very bluntly announcing that Iran must immediately accept a total and unconditional surrender.  

Equities end higher as oil prices pull back on truce hopes

Equities end higher as oil prices pull back on truce hopes

By Chuck Mikolajczak

Mon June 16, 2025 4:31 PM

I speculated on Friday that, depending on how progress went between Israel and Iran over the weekend, the markets may indeed be taking an even bigger dive today. Indeed, the weekend and today saw dramatic increases in the mutual attacks. But today it took only the slightest hint of peace hopes to instead make the indexes surge, big 3-digit surges making up most of Friday’s lost ground.

Wall St ends sharply lower as Iran retaliates against Israel attack

Wall St ends sharply lower as Iran retaliates against Israel attack

By Noel Randewich and Kanchana Chakravarty

Fri June 13, 2025 7:32 PM

It was a pretty typical down day all morning reflecting the usual trade war and tariff anxiety. Then right after the noon hour, all the indexes plummeted drastically with much greater anxiety over the potential major disruption to the global markets that could well result from this brand new war between Israel and Iran. What’s puzzling is why did it take the market until noon to panic since the fighting had been going on since yesterday? Perhaps it was hopes that Iran would not retaliate so fiercely, and it has indeed been quite fierce. Today’s expert has predicted a protracted war which could have a devastating impact on global trade, especially if the critical Gulf of Hormuz is closed.  

S&P 500 ends higher as Oracle reignites AI rally; Boeing drops

S&P 500 ends higher as Oracle reignites AI rally; Boeing drops

By Noel Randewich and Sukriti Gupta

Fri June 12, 2025 4:19 PM

All three indexes started the day in the red, the Dow down more than 250, before starting a recovery around 10 a.m. that continued throughout the day to close with modest gains, the Dow just making 3-digits. Middle East tensions haunted at first but then Oracle came out with a strong annual revenue forecast based on growing demand for its AI services and that sprung the whole market into action. Lower than expected PPI and jobless claims also helped optimism of a weakening labor market which would keep inflation down and calm market concerns about tariffs driving higher prices.

S&P 500 ends lower; traders focus on Middle East tension and await details on trade deal

S&P 500 ends lower; traders focus on Middle East tension and await details on trade deal

By Noel Randewich and Kanchana Chakravarty

Wed June 11, 2025 4:39 PM

All three indexes enjoyed gains in the morning session, the Dow up some 250 points by 1:30, then suddenly plummeting into negative territory, all three closing in the red. What drove the buying up was likely the CPI report which showed an increase in inflation of 2.4%, below the 2.5% forecast. Additionally, there was the Trump announcement of a done deal with China with a framework agreed on to get a truce back on track.

Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures waver as US-China trade talks progress, inflation print looms

Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures waver as US-China trade talks progress, inflation print looms

Amalya Dubrovsky --  Yahoo Finance

Updated Tue, June 10, 2025 at 9:01 PM EDT 

DJ: 42,761.76  -1.14         NAS: 19,591.24  +61.24       S&P: 6,005.88  +5.52        6/9

DJ: 42,866.87  +105.11    NAS: 19,714.99  +123.75     S&P: 6,038.81  +32.93      6/10

One of the problems of doing this blog is that if you’re not right there on the Internet when the markets close, a few hours later all the market summaries are gone. I was busy today so it was 11 pm before I could even get started so I couldn’t even find the index data in any article about the day’s movements. The individual charts reveal a lot of choppiness but overall ended with reasonably good gains. The only info I could glean from several articles is anticipation over the China trade talks which the White House reports are going well but with Trump’s cautionary note, “China is tough.” But mainly, everybody’s waiting for Wednesday’s CPI and Thursday’s jobless claims.  Per the CBOE, volume came in at 19.28 billion, above the average. 

Tue 6-10-25 Yahoo - Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures waver as US-China trade talks progress, inflation print looms

S&P 500 ends slightly up; traders watch US-China trade talks

S&P 500 ends slightly up; traders watch US-China trade talks

By Noel Randewich and Kanchana Chakravarty

Mon June 9, 2025 4:20 PM

The Dow swung back and forth in a range from -200 to +130 only to plummet in the last ten minutes to zero. The S&P started at zero, then sprung up after noon to a +21 before dropping back to near zero in the final hour. The Nasdaq had a good day zooming over 100 right away and staying there all day until falling back to +61 in the final hour. So the day was pretty much a wash but with tech benefitting from the trade talks with China that kicked off today and which the market has already decided will be successful until proven otherwise.

US stocks end up on jobs data, China hopes; Tesla bounces

US stocks end up on jobs data, China hopes; Tesla bounces

By Saeed Azhar, Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta

Fri June 6, 2025 4:26 PM

After the week’s pessimism over the health of the job market and the anticipated data in today’s payrolls report, the markets were overjoyed that jobs came in 9,000 higher than forecast, especially with April’s numbers having been revised downward. It reignited confidence that the job market was steady, unemployment was steady, and consequently the economy as a whole. This caused an immediate surge at opening bell on all the indexes, the Dow up some 600 points and more or less staying steady all day and closing 443 up.  

US stocks end lower, crude gains as Trump-Musk row distracts from trade talks, data

US stocks end lower, crude gains as Trump-Musk row distracts from trade talks, data

By Stephen Culp

Thu June 5, 2025 4:21 PM

The indexes moved in a herky-jerky fashion today as they fluctuated between red and black, the Dow swinging in almost a 400-point range between -200 and +200 several times. All three ended negative, the Dow and Nasdaq in triple digits. The upward surges were encouragement from the news that today Trump phoned Xi to talk trade, the result being a willingness to have more talks. The downward surges came as a consequence on the online feud between Trump and Musk being played out all day live on social media. Tesla’s stock dropped 14.3%.  

Wall Street ends narrowly mixed in choppy trade on weak economic data

Wall Street ends narrowly mixed in choppy trade on weak economic data

By Saeed Azhar, Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta

Wed June 4, 2025 4:35 PM

It was certainly a seesaw day as the indexes were up and down at least three times during the session, closing in a relatively flat position, the Dow down 91, the Nasdaq up 61, and the S&P with scarcely a 1 point gain. Today was the deadline Trump set for all the many nations involved in this global trade war to submit their proposals, though there is no reporting as to how many, if any, responded. But the day’s important news is a contraction in the services sector showing rising supply prices and inflation likely due to tariffs.  

Wall Street stocks close higher, dollar bounces back amid tariff talks, economic data

Wall Street stocks close higher, dollar bounces back amid tariff talks, economic data

By Stephen Culp

Tue June 3, 2025 4:32 PM

Optimism continues over the resolution of the trade wars as the markets await the world’s countries trade proposals which Trump has required by Wednesday. The indexes had nice 3-digit gains but all must still be viewed with a jaundiced eye given the patterns of protracted negotiations and moving deadlines which have prompted economists to downgrade forecasts. Today got a boost though from the White House announcement that Trump would be meeting this week with China’s president to talk trade and tariffs, taken as another positive step towards ending this.

S&P closes higher on trade hopes, Nvidia lifts Nasdaq

S&P closes higher on trade hopes, Nvidia lifts Nasdaq

By Saeed Azhar, Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta

Mon June 2, 2025 7:02 PM

All three indexes started the day in the red, the Dow down over 400, the S&P down 50, until 10 a.m. when all three started a recovery which lasted all day to close modestly in the black. Trump has once again doubled down on his tariffs and today China slammed back protesting the accusation they have violated agreements. Though some traders continue to watch trade progress with a jaundiced eye, others see optimism whereas instead of seeing these threats as a bad thing are calling them “nudges to move negotiations towards the finish line.” There is today added optimism with Trump’s announcement that he wants trade proposals from all these countries by Wednesday.