By Purvi Agarwal and Twesha Dikshit
March 25 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open higher on Wednesday as prospects of a de-escalation in the Middle East conflict allayed some investor fears around prolonged energy supply disruptions.
Pakistan has delivered a proposal from the United States to Iran, and either Pakistan or Turkey could be venues for discussions to de-escalate the war in the Gulf, a senior Iranian official told Reuters. Tehran has so far denied in public that it would negotiate with the Trump administration.
Media reports earlier said Washington had sent Iran a 15-point proposal. Israel’s Channel 12 said the U.S. planned to discuss the plan during a proposed ceasefire.
Global markets cheered the reports, hoping for a breakthrough that could help restore shipping through the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices sank almost 4%, supporting broader risk appetite.
“Markets are seeing some sort of a pathway for de-escalation in the war. How soon could this materialize, the peace part of this situation? Are these really credible thoughts happening or is it just kind of the headline noise that we’ve been seeing back and forth?” said Aleks Spencer, chief investment officer at Bogart Wealth.
“Every day seems to be a different discussion.”
At 08:39 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 363 points, or 0.78%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 51.5 points, or 0.78%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 232.5 points, or 0.96%.
Futures tracking the small-cap Russell 2000 index rose 1%.
Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Tuesday as a relief rally sparked by President Donald Trump’s decision to postpone strikes on Iran’s power network fizzled out.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said oil prices could reach $150 a barrel and cause a “global recession” if Iran “remains a threat” even after the war ends.
The spike in oil prices tied to the Iran conflict has revived inflation concerns, complicating the interest rate outlook of central banks.
Markets are not pricing in any easing from the Federal Reserve this year, compared with two cuts anticipated before the war broke out, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
In premarket moves, U.S.-listed shares of Arm jumped 11.8% after the company unveiled a new AI data center chip that is expected to bring billions of dollars in revenue.
Other chipmakers also inched higher with Intel up 4.2%, Marvell Technology gaining 1.8% and Nvidia 1.4% higher.
U.S.-listed shares of JD.com and Alibaba gained more than 3.4% each after Chinese state media and the regulator urged the food delivery platform industry to end a bleeding price war.
Destiny Tech100 surged 27% after a report that SpaceX aims to file its IPO prospectus as soon as this week. SpaceX is the fund’s largest equity holding.
Other space companies also rose, with Rocket Lab, Intuitive Machines and AST Spacemobile up between 3% and 4%.
Robinhood Markets added 3.4% after the trading platform announced a new $1.5 billion share buyback program.
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal, Medha Singh and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Devika Syamnath)
Comments