Wall Street marked gains despite fresh calls from Iraq favoring the day-end selling

• Global equity benchmarks seem to forget Iranian attacks overnight as both sides signaled de-escalation afterward.
• Nasdaq closed at a record level with the top of 9168.88, DJIA registered 0.56% profits near 28,745 whereas S&P500 gain +0.48% to 3,252.
• Reports of round two of missile fires by Iran seems to weigh near the close, World Bank’s growth forecast added downside pressure.

The US equity benchmarks respected the de-escalation of the US-Iran tension while shrugging off the day-end pullback in buying due to the reports of attacks near Iraq’s green zone. Also contributing to the market’s positive sentiment could be upbeat prints of the US ADP Employment Change, to 202K versus 160K forecast and upwardly revised 124K prior. On the other hand, the World Bank’s lowering of global growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020 seems an additional burden on shares at the day’s end.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, DJIA, +0.56% ended around 160 points, about 28,745, while the S&P 500 gains more than 15 points to 3,252.76, +0.48%. The Nasdaq COMP +0.67%, closed at the records around 9,129, high of 9,168.88 while ignoring the day-end liquidation.

Trump, Iran and ADP…

Be it US President Donald Trump’s surprise restraint from calling the war or Iran’s signal in the same direction to stop or upbeat US ADP data, markets had good catalysts to cover up the overnight attacks on the US bases in Iraq.

Read: Breaking: US Pres. Trump: No Americans were harmed, Iran appears to be standing down

Even so, the recent calls signal the renewal of Iran’s missile attacks, with few near Iraq’s green-zone, which in turn could push the US dump the peace call and turn off the risk recovery on Thursday. Also on the negative side is the World Bank’s global growth forecast. The institution cuts 2019 prediction to 2.4% from 2.6% (lowest since crisis) whereas expecting 2020 growth to 2.5% from 2.7% said earlier.

Read: Reports of rockets hitting Iraqi green-zone – Developing story

Moving on…

While second-tier data from the US will entertain markets ahead of the key jobs report during the day to come, the latest attacks from Iran might push the Trump administration to dump their peace calls. If so, it could be a bad day for equities.

DJIA levels