Asia Markets
Update: US Equity Indexes Rise as Washington Aims to Prevent Iran From Gaining Control of Hormuz
(Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data and company/geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)US equity indexes rose amid gains in technology and as crude oil fell in the aftermath of Washington degrading Iran's capability to attack commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.9% to 26,109.6, the S&P 500 climbed 0.7% to 7,531.4, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average marched 0.3% higher to 52,498.1 after midday Thursday. Technology and financials led the gainers, while consumer staples and energy paced the decliners.US Central Command overnight hit 90 Iranian military targets, according to its social media post on X, after striking 80 on the previous night following Iran's attacks on three commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for about a fifth of global crude oil flows.On Wednesday, before the second round of strikes on Iran, US Vice President JD Vance said: "If Iran tries to close the strait down, there's going to be a response [from] the American military. That's the deal."Tehran on Thursday said it had attacked US military sites in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar in response to the new US strikes on infrastructure, according to reports from Reuters and Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern broadcaster. Iran fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan's Azraq military base, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC launched the missile strike targeting the "US command-and-control center," Al Jazeera cited an IRGC statement carried by Iran's semi-official news agency, Fars."The question confronting traders is whether Iran is willing to return to large-scale kinetic war with the US and its allies if necessary to strengthen its claim of control over the Strait of Hormuz, something that it has apparently not been granted by way of any diplomatic negotiations so far," Thierry Wizman, global foreign-exchange and rates strategist at Macquarie, said in a note Thursday.The front-month global benchmark North Sea Brent slid 2.1% to $76.35 a barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate declined 2.1% to $72.00 a barrel.The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as the fear gauge, dropped 5.1% to 16.04.Most US Treasury yields fell, with the 10-year down 2.4 basis points to 4.54% and the two-year declining 3.1 basis points to 4.17%. Investors are weighing a worsening geopolitical environment and the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes released Wednesday, which showed diversity in views on the monetary policy path ahead.Gold futures advanced 1.5% to $4,142.3, and silver futures jumped 4% to $60.89.In economic news, US initial jobless claims fell sequentially to 215,000 in the week ended July 4 from an upwardly revised 217,000, compared with expectations for 217,000 in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. The four-week moving average declined by 3,750 to 218,750.In company news, PepsiCo (PEP) reported fiscal Q2 results above Wall Street's estimates on Thursday, although soft consumer spending in the US weighed on its North American performance. Shares fell 3.3%, among the laggards on the Nasdaq.Paramount's (PSKY) $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) could face lawsuits from US states to block the deal as soon as next week, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. Shares of Paramount dropped 4.8%, the worst performer on the S&P 500.
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