Stock Markets Jump to All-Time High After Trump's Iran Address

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By Joe Setyon

Published January 8, 2020 at 11:16am

At least two major stock market indices rose to all-time highs in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s speech to the nation Wednesday on Iran.

Trump’s comments at the White House came one day after Iran fired roughly 15 ballistic missiles into Iraq.

Eleven of them hit the Ain al-Asad Air Base and Irbil military base, which house U.S. troops, Fox News reported. A U.S. military spokesman for Central Command said four of the missiles missed their targets.

But there were no U.S. casualties, Trump said, and the president appeared to express interest in de-escalation as opposed to an all-out war against the Iranian regime.

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“Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world,” Trump said, according to a White House transcript of his remarks.

Stocks rose Wednesday as traders breathed “a sigh of relief,” Art Cashin, director of floor operations at the New York Stock Exchange for UBS, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley.”

“Now, as the president has to some degree defused some of the anxiety, so you’re getting … a little bit of a sigh of relief rally here,” Cashin said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained roughly 200 points for the day in the aftermath of Trump’s address.

Moreover, the Nasdaq Composite rose more than 0.7 percent, hitting an all-time high, according to CNBC. The Standard & Poor’s 500 also advanced roughly 0.7 percent, hitting a record high as well.

Rising tensions between Iran and the U.S. sparked fears of a military conflict between the two nations.

Last week, an Iran-backed militia carried out a rocket strike on an Iraqi military base that killed an American contractor.

Then on Friday morning, the U.S. retaliated with a drone strike that eliminated Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, and eight others.

Iran retaliated with missile strikes Tuesday night on Iraq military bases. Trump, for his part, said Wednesday that the Iranian “campaign of terror, murder, mayhem will not be tolerated any longer.”

But he also had a message of peace, if Iran is willing to listen.

“To the people and leaders of Iran: We want you to have a future and a great future — one that you deserve, one of prosperity at home, and harmony with the nations of the world,” he said. “The United States is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it.”