US stocks cut losses on Netanyahu war comments as energy prices soar again

NEW YORK: Energy prices soared during a volatile session Thursday (Mar 19), while Wall Street stocks trimmed losses after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war with Iran could finish sooner than expected.

Major Wall Street indices were headed to significant losses following gloomy sessions in Europe and Asia, but got a boost from Netanyahu’s press conference shortly before the US market closed.

Netanyahu said he sees “this war ending a lot faster than people think,” the Israeli leader told a press conference, while vowing that Iran’s efforts to “blackmail the world” by shutting the Strait of Hormuz were doomed to failure.

The broad-based S&P 500 finished at 6,606.49, down 0.3 per cent but up about 50 points from its session lows.

The stock market’s move higher was “kind of reflexive,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare, who described the market’s reaction as a mix of optimism and caution.

The market “is taking it somewhat hopefully but also reservedly because the fact of the matter is that the war isn’t over yet,” he said.

Surging energy prices had battered equity markets earlier Thursday, with Frankfurt, Paris and London all losing two percent or more following similar declines in Tokyo and other Asian markets.

International benchmark Brent crude rose more than five percent to top US$115 per barrel and US contract WTI briefly topped US$100 as Tehran targeted regional installations in retaliation for an Israeli strike on a site serving its massive South Pars field, which it shares with Qatar.