Markets Go Wild After Trump Yanks Back His Threat

Wall Street exhaled deeply on Wednesday morning as a two-week halt in US-Iran hostilities announced Tuesday night by President Trump sent oil prices sliding toward $90 a barrel and stocks surging. CNBC reports the S&P 500 surged 2.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1,384 points, or 2.9%; the Nasdaq composite was up 3.3%.

CNBC reports that international benchmark Brent crude prices are down more than 16% to $91.65 a barrel. The Wall Street Journal noted prices were down more than 14% around 7am ET, and it cited FactSet data dating to 1989 that showed only four greater single-day drops: two came amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020; another was on the first trading day after the 1991 attack on Iraq.