Wall Street falls as Middle East concerns offset earnings optimism

Wall Street falls as Middle East concerns offset earnings optimism

By Chuck Mikolajczak and Niket Nishant

Tue April 21, 2026  

Wall Street optimism dominated the opening with all three indexes well into gains, the Dow up some 400 by 10 a.m. Up until now, war news has been shrugged off in favor of solid Q1 earnings but today that flipped. Despite another round of solid Q1, focus today went to the war with the markets declining after 10 a.m. and for the rest of the session to close with substantial 3-digit losses. Some of this was triggered by the news of Vance not going to Pakistan after all.  

But I think today’s expert summed up the real sentiment, something I’ve believe all along, “The wild card is indeed what happens with Iran, and nobody knows, and it’s baffling to me that people think that it’s going to be okay.” Besides good Q1 reports, retail sales also came in strong but tempered by the fact that most gains were from the much higher prices of gasoline. I would like to see the same data with gasoline removed. There is also notable concern regarding today’s Senate confirmation hearings of Trump’s hand-picked successor to Fed chair Kevin Warsh and in which direction he may lead the Fed if he’s chosen.  At 18.08 billion, today’s volume was very close to the 18.4 average. 

DJ: 49,442.56  -4.87          NAS: 24,404.39  -64.09        S&P: 7,109.14  -16.92               4/20

DJ: 49,149.38  -293.18      NAS: 24,259.96  -144.43      S&P:       7,064.01  -45.13        4/21

Tue 4-21-26 4:45 pm Wall Street falls as Middle East concerns offset earnings optimism | Reuters