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.

Another major trigger was a signal from the Fed that rate cuts were needed sooner than later to aid the weakening labor market and, though the next cut is still largely expected in September, there was a hint today that it could come as soon as July. PMI data also showed an unexpected increase in the growth of the economy as well as an unexpected increase in new home sales. Revised Q1 GDP and PCE are coming later in the week. Volume came in slightly above the 18.1 billion average at 18.6 billion. 

DJ: 42,206.82  +35.16       NAS: 19,447.41  -98.86       S&P: 5,967.84  -13.03         6/20

DJ: 42,581.78  +374.96     NAS: 19,630.98  +183.57    S&P: 6,025.17  +57.33        6/23

Mon 6-23-25 4:39 pm Wall St ends higher as rate-cut hopes offset Iran war fears | Reuters