U.S. stocks recovered from their losses on Tuesday as President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will have a no armed response to Iran's attacks. According to Capital Economics senior market economist Oliver Jones, the firm doubts "that U.S.-Iran tensions will play more than a minor role in deciding the best and worst-performing asset classes in 2020 as a whole, at least outside the Middle East...These conflicts simply haven't had large enough lasting effects on the global economy to matter much to markets outside the Middle East for long."
Here's how the main three U.S. market averages settled in the mid-week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.49% or +15.87 points
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.56% or +161.41 points
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.67% or +60.66 points
In U.S. Economic News, private payrolls rose more than expected in December, according to a report from ADP/Moody Wednesday. The U.S. economy added 202,000 private payrolls in December, which greatly exceeded consensus economist expectations of an increase of 160,000. For November, private payrolls upwardly revised to 124,000 from the 67,000 reported in December.
In Stock Sector News, most U.S. sectors recovered from their Tuesday losses. The many that had stock share increase include Information Technology +1.03%, Communication Services +0.69%, Health Care +0.64%, Financials +0.54%, Materials +0.49%, Consumer Staples +0.45%, Real Estate +0.42%, Industrials +0.23% and Consumer Discretionary +0.15%. For the rest of the stock market sectors, Utilities ended the trading day unchanged from Tuesday and Energy steeply dropped -1.74% on Wednesday.
Lastly, in Commodity and Currency News, oil prices plummeted Wednesday following news that the conflict between U.S. and Iran has begun to de-escalate. West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) and Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) dropped around -4%, bringing barrel prices just below $60. Gold (NYSE: GLD) also had a similar response to the market's recent movement, with the metal's price declining over -1%. Wednesday also marked the first time in 11 session where gold futures ended with a decline. Finally, the U.S. Dollar continues to strengthen in current climates, with the DXY Index increasing almost +4%.