The Dow recoiled in the minutes before the closing bell as reports spread of rockets landing in the Baghdad Green Zone in Iraq.
Reports of a rocket strike in Iraq triggered a sharp sell-off in stocks in the minutes before the market closed. | Source: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
The headlines will tell you that the Dow advanced by triple digits on Wednesday.
But after the bellwether index flirted with a 300-point surge, the stock market’s record-setting day almost unraveled in the minutes before the closing bell.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 suffered similar pullbacks, while the gold and oil prices bounced off their session lows.
The abrupt swing in risk sentiment coincided with on-the-ground reports of rocket fire in Baghdad’s Green Zone.
Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst posted the following video on Twitter. Turn up the volume, and you can hear blaring sirens and an ominous “incoming” warning.
A Reuters newsflash confirmed the strike, stating that police sources said multiple Katyusha rockets had fallen within the Green Zone of Iraq’s capital city and started a fire. According to the Iraqi military, no casualties had been reported.
Further details remain slim, but the new development comes just hours after President Donald Trump told Americans that Iran appeared to be standing down after launching a barrage of missile strikes that analysts described as “harmless.”
Trump’s comments helped ignite a phenomenal stock market rally as Wall Street gambled that the worst of the US-Iran military hostilities had already passed, particularly since Iran appeared to deliberately avoid killing US personnel.
This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.
Last modified: January 22, 2020 11:39 PM UTC