Stock Market News Live: Dow closes in on 29,000 as U.S.-Iran tensions ease – Yahoo Finance

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Wall Street continued to monitor developments in U.S.-Iran relations Thursday, following signs that the Trump administration would respond to this week’s Iranian missile attacks with sanctions rather than military action.

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4:08 p.m. ET: Dow closes in on 29,000 as U.S.-Iran tensions ease

Here’s where the major indices settled as of 4:08 p.m. ET:

• S&P 500 (^GSPC): +0.67% or +21.65 points to 3,274.70

• Dow (^DJI): +0.74% or +211.81 points to 28,956.90

• Nasdaq (^IXIC): +0.81% or +74.18 points to 9,203.43

• Crude oil (CL=F): -0.08% or -0.05 to 59.56 a barrel

• Gold (GC=F): -0.45% or -7.00 to 1,553.20 per ounce

2:48 p.m. ET: Fed’s Kaplan, Evans say interest rates may hold for a while

Two Federal Reserve presidents weighed in on rates today, saying they may remain unchanged for sometime.

The Fed’s balance sheet may be a problem according to Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, who said he wants to explore options to restrain growth in securities holdings, Reuters reports.

“I do think the growth in the balance sheet is having some impact on the financial markets and on the valuation of risk assets,” Kaplan told Reuters. “I want to be cognizant of not adding more fuel that could help create further excesses and imbalances.”

Separately, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said such a hold could last all year, Reuters reports.

“My expectation is we could go through the entire year without rate changes,” Evans said at a panel in Wisconsin.

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12:46 p.m. ET: Here’s the message the Fed wants markets to hear, El-Erian says

Markets will ignore the headlines out of Washington, D.C., as long as the Federal Reserve continues to provide liquidity and keep interest rates near historically low levels, said Allianz Chief Economic Adviser Mohamed El-Erian.

“We are gonna stay low for long.’ That’s the message the Fed wants markets to hear,” El-Erian told Yahoo Finance’s On The Move Thursday afternoon.

The Fed stunning reversal to lowering interest rates last year, in tandem with its end-of-year return to balance sheet expansion and injection of hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity to the financial system, has supported markets even as political and geopolitical uncertainties flared. However, it’s also created a potentially dangerous expectation that the Fed will always be able to come to the rescue.

“I keep on cautioning, be careful that you cannot bet on liquidity long-term. Yes, the Fed did a dramatic 180 a year ago. Yes, the Fed led other central banks to also follow it in policy loosening. But you can’t repeat it over and over again. And meanwhile, the uncertainties are piling up. So if you’re a tactical investor, life is relatively easy. If you are a longer-term secular and structural investor, life is getting much more difficult. And the challenge for all of us is to navigate this growing tug of war between constructive short-term and to use Ben Bernanke’s phrase, an ‘unusually uncertain’ medium-term.”

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12:20 p.m. ET: Ukraine plane likely downed by Iranian missile: reports

U.S. officials believe the Ukrainian aircraft that crashed near Tehran on Wednesday was shot down by an Iranian missile, according to recent reports from multiple outlets.

Newsweek and CBS each reported Thursday that U.S. officials think the plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile system originating from Iran, likely by mistake. Each outlet cited unnamed officials as sources.

Shares of Boeing rose more than 2% amid the reports. A Boeing 737-800 plane was involved in the crash.

An earlier report from Iranian investigators suggested the plane had suffered from a technical issue, had tried to turn back toward its origin airport in Tehran and had caught fire before falling from the air. Ukrainian officials said they were exploring a number of possible reasons for the crash.

Speaking from the White House Thursday around noon, President Donald Trump said he had “his suspicions” about how the plane went down.

“It’s a tragic thing … someone could have made a mistake on the other side,” Trump said “It was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood.”

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11:42 a.m. ET: Stocks hold near the highs of the day

Gains in the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq accelerated as the session continued, with stocks holding near the highs of the session.

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 11:42 a.m. ET:

• S&P 500 (^GSPC): +0.6% or +19.59 points to 3,272.64

• Dow (^DJI): +0.71% or +204.33 points to 28,949.42

• Nasdaq (^IXIC): +0.85% or +77.26 points to 9,206.50

• Crude oil (CL=F): -0.23% or -$0.14 to $59.47 a barrel

• Gold (GC=F): -0.62% or -$9.70 to $1,550.50 per ounce

“Markets are brushing aside fears of a major escalation in US/Iranian conflict after President Trump’s comments yesterday evening. For markets, everything really is awesome,” Kit Juckes, macro strategist for Societe Generale, wrote in a note. “With a dearth of major market-moving data releases today, there’s barely a cloud on the horizon.”