Evening Market Recap - Wednesday, 8-Apr

US equities surged Wed., with major indexes +2.5-3%, as markets embraced a two-week US-Iran ceasefire that lifted geopolitical hedges and sent WTI to its worst session since Apr. 2020. The de-escalation trade drove outperformance in banks, airlines, and industrials, while energy and commodity-linked names lagged, and META stood out in big tech on the debut of its first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs.

US equities down in Tuesday afternoon trading, though off well worst levels. Big tech was mostly lower. Market preoccupied with the question of what will happen at 8pm Eastern tonight, Trump's deadline for Iran to make a deal or suffer widespread attacks.

US equities were higher in Monday trading. The market was building on last week's bounce amid abundant headline noise. Talk of ceasefire from this weekend has largely evolved as expected, with Iranian officials rejecting idea of a temporary ceasefire and arguing for a permanent solution while Trump stressed tomorrow night's final deadline and prospects for the US to do more damage to remaining energy infrastructure.

Major US equity indices were higher for the holiday-shortened week, helped by some hopes for a winding down of the Iran war. The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq were higher after five consecutive weeks down. The small-cap Russell 2000 notched its second consecutive weekly gain.

U.S. equities closed higher Wednesday driven by Iran conflict off-ramp optimism and stabilizing rates. Economic data beat across the board, with March ISM manufacturing at 52.7, Feb. retail sales +0.6% m/m, and March ADP payrolls coming in at 62K vs. 40K consensus. On the corporate side, NKE and RH disappointed on forward guidance, while OpenAI closed a record $122B funding round and SpaceX filed for one of the biggest IPOs ever.

US equities sharply higher Tuesday. S&P 500 posted biggest one-day gain since last May. Momentum, growth, high-beta, most-shorted names, retail-investor favorites and EM among the best performing factors/themes.

US equities were lower in Monday trading as stocks reversed early gains and ended a bit off session lows. There were a lot of moving pieces today. In macro news, Fed Chair Powell said Fed tools have no meaningful effect on supply shocks, and noted risks to both sides of the mandate.

US equities were mostly lower this week, with the Nasdaq the notable underperformer, but the small-cap Russell 2000 posting a modest gain for the week. Big tech was mostly lower this week, with semis, software, and memory also weaker. Meanwhile, it was a very busy week of Iran updates.

US equities were lower in Thursday trading as stocks reversed earlier gains to end near session lows. FCI is tightening as the market seems to have flipped back to conflict de-escalation skepticism amid another day of largely one-sided messaging. Initial jobless claims for the week to 21-Mar were in line with consensus at 210K.

U.S. stocks climbed Wednesday as hopes for a U.S.-Iran ceasefire boosted risk appetite, sending oil lower and pulling Treasury yields down 4 to 7 basis points. Meta and Alphabet lagged the broader market following a social media negligence ruling, while gold and silver surged on the risk-on tone.