S&P 500 Gains 5th Straight Day After Mideast Diplomatic Reprieve
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- U.S. stocks ended mixed on Tuesday — the Dow fell 85.42 points (-0.18%) to 46,584.46, while the S&P 500 gained 5.02 points (+0.08%) to 6,616.85 and the Nasdaq gained 21.51 points (+0.10%) to 22,017.85.
- All three major indexes recovered from steep losses in the final hour after Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif said on X that diplomatic efforts for a peaceful Middle East settlement were 'progressing steadily,' urging Trump to extend his Iran deadline by two weeks and requesting Iran open the Strait of Hormuz as a goodwill gesture.
- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq reversed their losses to close slightly higher, marking their fifth straight session of gains.
- Iran had not yet allowed traffic to resume through the Strait of Hormuz as Trump's deadline — the end of Tuesday — approached, and attacks on Iran were intensifying.
- Oil prices diverged: front-month U.S. WTI crude settled up 0.5% while Brent crude settled down 0.5%, though oil has surged since the United States and Israel declared war on Iran on February 28.
- Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee warned the war could produce a 'stagflationary shock,' driving higher inflation while dampening the economy and putting the central bank in a bind.
- Durable goods orders fell more than analysts expected in February (before the war), and the Labor Department's CPI report due later this week will show the war's impact on inflation.
Why it matters: The S&P 500's last-hour reversal from steep losses to a fifth straight gain shows how a single X post from Pakistan's PM flipped index closes, underscoring how tethered U.S. equities are to Middle East headlines. With the Strait of Hormuz still closed and CPI data due, traders face back-to-back catalysts that will test whether the late-session recovery holds.
