NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Monday after dovish comments from the Federal Reserve’s Michelle Bowman as well as gains in Tesla outweighed worries of potential oil supply bottlenecks following US airstrikes on nuclear facilities in Iran.
Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, recently tapped by Trump as the central bank’s top bank overseer, said the time to cut interest rates could be fast approaching.
She noted growing concerns about the job market and said she was less worried tariffs would lead to inflation.
Tesla’s shares rose 9.7% after it deployed a small group of self-driving taxis picking up paying passengers on Sunday in Austin, Texas.
Meanwhile, oil prices dipped more than 1% to $76.2 per barrel, having touched a five-month high earlier as oil and gas transit continued on tankers from the Middle East after US strikes against Iran over the weekend.
Tehran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate against the US attacks, but is yet to do so in a meaningful way.
Equity markets have been pressured in recent days as the Israel-Iran attacks raised concerns about a wider conflict in the Middle East, disrupting oil prices and raising concerns about a resurgence in inflationary pressures.
The benchmark S&P 500 index was about 2.7% below its record level.
“I think the market is certainly in a holding pattern, waiting to see the level of Iran’s response to the US weekend attacks,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.
“There’s a sense that investors are conditioned not to think that geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East will have a long-term impact on the market.”
At 11:56 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 30.71 points, or 0.09%, to 42,243.19, the S&P 500 gained 16.72 points, or 0.28%, to 5,984.56, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 77.57 points, or 0.40%, to 19,524.98.
Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sectors rose. Energy stocks fell 0.4%, while consumer discretionary led gains and was up nearly 2%.
The focus this week will be on US core PCE data and the final GDP reading, as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s two-day semiannual testimony before Congress.
The central bank held interest rates steady in its June monetary policy meeting, but flagged inflationary risks due to higher trade duties.
Data on Monday showed US business activity slowed marginally in June, while prices increased further amid President Donald Trump’s tariffs, indicating that inflation might rise in the second half of 2025.
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