Wall Street stocks were mixed on Tuesday on a record-setting rally as hopes faded for a swift return of Strait of Hormuz oil flows and focus turned to the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average nudged up 0.4% after soaring to an all-time closing high on Monday as markets celebrated a US-Iran peace deal. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, hovered near the flat line.
Markets are digesting warnings that Friday’s reopening of the Strait of Hormuz promised by the US-Iran agreement isn’t likely to be easy, and it could take months for oil shipments to ramp up. Uncertainty over the deal’s details, which have yet to be released, is also cooling optimism. However, US officials have said commercial traffic will be allowed to use the waterway without tolls.
That provides a complicated backdrop to the Fed meeting, with recent inflation reports running hotter than expected amid the war in Iran, which has pushed energy prices higher. Its counterpart, the Bank of Japan, on Tuesday raised its benchmark interest rate to a 31-year high to counter those price pressures.
Officials begin their June meeting on Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday’s closely watched rate decision — the first under President Trump-backed Chair Kevin Warsh. While the Fed is overwhelmingly expected to hold rates steady this time, many on Wall Street expect a shift toward hikes this year in the “dot plot” of policymakers’ expectations.
Yahoo Finance
