Iran-Israel ceasefire lifts US stocks

NEW YORK - Wall Street stocks jumped on June 24 as an Iran-Israel ceasefire appeared to hold through its first day and oil prices continued their retreat.

Major indices spent the entire day in positive territory with both Iran and Israel refraining from new attacks after a barrage of last-minute strikes.

With the “deescalation, the market seems to be doing better,” said Mr Art Hogan, chief market strategist of B. Riley Wealth, who also described Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s testimony before Congress as constructive for equities.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.2 per cent at 43,089.02.

The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 1.1 per cent to 6,092.18, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.4 per cent to 19,912.53.

In a first day of congressional testimony, Mr Powell told lawmakers that the central bank can afford to wait for the impact of tariffs before deciding on further interest rate cuts.

But Mr Powell “didn’t close the door” to a potential rate cut, Mr Hogan said.

Mr Trump has been outspoken in ridiculing Mr Powell’s decisions thus far, referring to the Fed chair in a social media post on June 24 as a “dumb, hardheaded person.”

In recent days, some other Fed officials have said they could favour a rate cut in July if inflation stays muted.

Data released Tuesday showed US consumer confidence fell as participants in a survey expressed worries about tariffs.

Among individual companies, Carnival jumped 6.9 per cent after the cruise company reported much higher profits and said advanced bookings for 2026 were in line with 2025 record levels.

But KB Home fell 0.5 per cent as the homebuilder lowered some of its projections, saying that market conditions had softened.

Defence-related stocks were lower with the improving conditions in the Middle East. RTX and Lockheed Martin both lost more than 2 per cent. AFP