Today US equities have almost the whole place to themselves with most of Europe and parts of Asia closed. Tonight was the latest deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, but over the weekend President Trump pushed that back to Tuesday. This morning the S&P opened slightly higher after futures rose from their opening lows (-0.5%) throughout the night and early morning, driven by the latest reports of negotiations that included a potential 45-day ceasefire being worked on. Iran rejected a US peace plan but issued its own 10-point response, which Trump called not good enough but a significant step.

Equities were trading in a relatively shallow range with the S&P creeping closer to its 200d ma (~6650) before President Trump’s press conference at 1:00pm. The first part of the long-ranging discussion focused on the incredible weekend operation to rescue a downed pilot. However without mention of any substantial update on the deadline or negotiations, equities started to slip and oil rise. Around 2pm Trump mentioned Iran being active and willing in discussions, which pushed equities back up again, while also eventually saying re-opening the Strait is a big priority, but not necessarily a determining factor for the US to end strikes. Among several other comments, markets seem to be putting more faith in the eventuality of a solution/end, even as a new deadline tomorrow approaches. The major indexes are all seeing similar, modest gains.

All sectors were +/- less than 1% currently, with most higher. Comm Services, Energy, Discretionary and Financials are leading, with gains dispersed broadly across them. For Comm Services the mega caps are modestly higher, including Netflix which caught an upgrade from Goldman Sachs, though it has come in from earlier highs to trade around flat. In Financials a few Private Credit/Equity names are seeing some modest weakness in the midst most of the rest trading higher.

Healthcare is among the laggards today. Biotech and pharma are lower, though the brisk biotech M&A activity continued today with Neurocrine’s $2.5B deal for Soleno. Tools names are seeing some pressure on another bout of AI displacement fears, this time after news of Anthropic’s purchase of Coefficient Bio. Materials is lower with most chemicals and miners lower.