Stock Market News for Jun 23, 2025
U.S. stocks ended mostly lower on Friday as investors assessed the ongoing conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Iran, with the United States considering whether to get involved. However, the Dow ended in positive territory.
How Did The Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.1% or 35.16 points, to finish at 42,206.82 points.
The S&P 500 declined 0.2% or 13.03 points to end at 5,967.84 points, to record its third straight day of losses. Materials and tech stocks were the worst performers, while consumer staples and energy stocks were the biggest gainers.
The Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB) lost 0.7%, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) fell 0.4%. The Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) gained 1%, while the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP) added 0.7%. Six of the 11 sectors of the benchmark index ended in positive territory.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 0.5%, or 98.86 points, to close at 19,447.41 points.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 6.99% to 20.62. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.1-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.4-to-1 ratio favored declining issues. A total of 20.91 billion shares were traded on Friday, higher than the last 20-session average of 18.06 billion.
Investors Monitor Middle East Crisis
The Middle East crisis remained in focus on Friday as tensions escalated between Iran and Israel, with the United States contemplating whether to join. President Donald Trump weighed whether to get directly involved in the conflict and strike Iran.
Trump had earlier called for the 'complete surrender' from Iran, but Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it was 'threatening and ridiculous.' Israel has been targeting Iran's nuclear facilities and a week into the attack, they claim to have hit multiple military targets.
Chip Stocks Take a Hit
Semiconductor stocks took a hit on Friday following a report that the United States might revoke waivers for some chipmakers. Shares of NVIDIA Corporation NVDA ended 1.1% lower. Also, shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited TSM declined 1.9%. NVIDIA has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Hopes About Rate Cuts Rise
The S&P 500 started the day on a high after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said in an interview that the central bank could start its rate cuts as early as July. Waller's remarks came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell earlier said that central bank was in no hurry to cut interest rates and would like to see how Trump's tariffs will impact the economy.
Trump has been extremely critical of Powell and slammed him once again on Thursday saying that a delay in rate cut is costing the U.S. economy 'hundreds of billions of dollars.'
No major economic data was released on Friday.
Weekly Roundup
For the week, the Dow ended 0.02% higher. The Nasdaq ended up 0.2% higher while the S&P 500 lost 0.2% for the week.
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CTV News
14 minutes ago
- CTV News
Europe scrambles to revive diplomacy after the U.S. strikes Iran's nuclear sites
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, center, speaks with from left, Malta's Foreign Minister Ian Borg, Slovenia's Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, Slovakia's Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar and Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno during a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) LONDON — European nations worked to keep diplomatic efforts to curb the Israel-Iran war alive as the two countries traded strikes following the United States' weekend attack on Iran's nuclear program, followed by a retaliatory Iranian missile strike Monday on a U.S. base in Qatar. Calls for Tehran to enter talks with Washington appeared to fall on deaf ears as it reached out to ally Russia for support instead. The crisis topped the agenda for European Union foreign ministers meeting Monday in Brussels, where diplomats agonized about the potential for Iranian retaliation to spark a wider war and global economic instability. Iran launched missile attacks Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar. Qatar condemned the attack on Al Udeid Air Base, and said it successfully intercepted the short and medium-range ballistic missiles. Before that attack, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said 'the concerns of retaliation and this war escalating are huge.' Kallas said any attempt by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global shipping, would be 'extremely dangerous and not good for anybody.' Europe seeks more talks Along with the EU, the 'E3' of Britain, France and Germany have led efforts to find a diplomatic solution, holding a tense seven-hour meeting in Geneva on Friday with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. A day after those talks ended with a vague promise to 'meet again in the future,' U.S. bombers struck three Iranian nuclear and military sites. No further E3 talks with Iran are currently planned, a European diplomatic official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations. Still, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged Iran to meet the E3 again, and to open negotiations with the United States. Planned U.S.-Iran talks in Oman were scuttled after Israel began attacking Iran's nuclear facilities on June 13. Iran has since ruled out negotiating while it is under attack. 'Take the off-ramp, dial this thing down and negotiate with the United States immediately and seriously,' said Lammy, who spoke to both Araghchi and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Europe had a role to play, but that 'a real precondition for a settlement to the conflict is that Iran be ready to negotiate directly with the U.S.' Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters in Brussels that he was proposing a meeting between the United States and Iran in Rome. Iran's envoy visits Russia It was Moscow that Iran reached out to Monday, though, sending Araghchi to meet President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. Putin condemned the United States' 'unprovoked aggression' against Iran and said Russia would help the Iranian people. Putin said he saw the visit as a chance to explore 'how we can get out of today's situation.' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had offered to mediate. European diplomatic efforts were complicated by a lack of foreknowledge of the Trump administration's moves. Some countries had no advance notice of the strikes. Britain was notified, but only shortly before bombs fell. Another hurdle was Trump's post on social media late Sunday musing about the potential for 'regime change' in Iran, despite U.S. officials' insistence that Washington is not seeking to change the government in Tehran. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stressed Monday that 'we reject all attempts to organize a change of regime by force.' 'It would be illusory and dangerous to think that such a change can be provoked through force and bombs,' he said. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon, making it an imminent threat. Mixed emotions among U.S. allies The U.S. strikes have brought mixed emotions in European capitals. Amid alarm at the potential for a wider war and calls for de-escalation, some American allies expressed relief that Iran's nuclear program had been set back. 'We can't pretend that the prevention of Iran getting nuclear weapons isn't a good thing for this country. But we're prioritizing diplomacy as the way forward,' said Tom Wells, a spokesman for British leader Starmer. 'The prime minister's priority is getting parties back around the table to negotiate a lasting settlement.' German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose country is a particularly staunch ally of Israel, said he saw 'no reason to criticize what Israel began a week ago, and also no reason to criticize what America did last weekend.' He acknowledged 'it is not without risk, but leaving things the way they were was also not an option.' Merz said he was 'somewhat optimistic' that the conflict would not widen. He said Iran's response so far has been far short 'of what we had to fear,' and that Iran's regional proxies had shown 'relatively little' reaction so far. But he cautioned that 'it doesn't have to stay that way.' By Jill Lawless And Ella Joyner. Joyner reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Elise Morton in London, Lorne Cook and Sam McNeil in Brussels, John Leicester in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Stephanie Liechtenstein in Vienna contributed.
Winnipeg Free Press
17 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
As Trump floats regime change in Iran, past US attempts to remake the Middle East may offer warnings
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As President Donald Trump floats the idea of 'regime change' in Tehran, previous U.S. attempts to remake the Middle East by force over the decades offer stark warnings about the possibility of a deepening involvement in the Iran-Israeli conflict. 'If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change???' Trump posted on his social media site over the weekend. The came after the U.S. bombed Iran's nuclear sites but before that country retaliated by firing its own missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday insisted that Trump, who spent years railing against 'forever wars' and pushing an 'America first' world view, had not committed a political about-face. 'The president's posture and our military posture has not changed,' she said, suggesting that a more aggressive approach might be necessary if Iran 'refuses to give up their nuclear program or engage in talks.' Leavitt also suggested that a new government in Iran could come about after its people stage a revolt — not necessarily requiring direct U.S. intervention. 'If they refuse to engage in diplomacy moving forward, why shouldn't the Iranian people rise up,' she asked. That's a perilous path that other U.S. administrations have taken. And it's a long way from Trump's past dismissal of ' stupid, endless wars,' and his scoffing at the idea of nation-building championed by his Republican predecessors — including in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the U.S. helped overthrow governments. Some lessons learned from previous conflicts: Initial success is often fleeting U.S. special forces and Afghan allies drove the Taliban from power and chased Osama bin Laden into Pakistan within months of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. American tanks rolled into Baghdad weeks after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But then, both wars went on for years. The Taliban waged a tenacious, two-decade insurgency and swept back into power as the U.S. beat a chaotic retreat in 2021. The overthrow of Saddam plunged Iraq into chaos, with Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias battling each other and U.S. forces. Israel has so far largely succeeded in taking out Iran's air defenses and ballistic missiles and the U.S. strikes on three sites with missiles and 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) bunker-buster bombs has wrecked its nuclear program, Trump says. But that still potentially leaves hundreds of thousands in the military, the Revolutionary Guard and forces known as the Basij, who played a key role in quashing waves of anti-government protests in recent years. Ground forces are key — but don't guarantee success Airstrikes have never been enough on their own. Take, for example, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. His forces withstood a seven-month NATO air campaign in 2011 before rebels fighting city by city eventually cornered and killed him. There are currently no insurgent groups in Iran capable of taking on the Revolutionary Guard, and it's hard to imagine Israeli or U.S. forces launching a ground invasion of a mountainous country of some 80 million people that is about four times as big as Iraq. A split in Iran's own security forces would furnish a ready-made insurgency, but it would also likely tip the country into civil war. There's also the question of how ordinary Iranians would respond. 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