How you’ll know when the stock market has moved past the Iran war

Stocks have so far weathered the volatility from the U.S.-Iran war, yet there’s one level they need to clear that will signal investors have already moved on. The S & P 500 climbed 0.8% on Wednesday as geopolitical worries appeared to ease. That gain came one day after the benchmark reversed course on Tuesday and bounced back from steep, early losses. Still, the index has not broken above its Monday high of 6,901.01. Its intraday high on Wednesday was 6,885.94. The S & P 500 hasn’t reclaimed its Monday closing level either. It ended the first session of the week at 6,881.62 and closed Wednesday at 6,869.5. .SPX 5D mountain SPX 5-day chart If the S & P 500 can climb “above this past Monday’s highs, I think it’s right to think that lows are in place for the time being,” wrote Mark Newton, technical strategist at Fundstrat. “To the market’s credit, it’s been able to weather an amazing amount of bad news while not breaking down, and sentiment is still quite subdued despite the lack of capitulation.” More worrying, perhaps, stocks were under pressure again on Thursday, making it more difficult for the S & P 500 to reclaim the Monday high. On top of that, Newton said the S & P 500 remains “trapped in the tightest range ever experienced.” The S & P 500 hit an all-time high of 7,002.28 in January. Its intraday low for the year is 6,710.42. “Until this tight trading range ends, it’s hard to expect an immediate end to this, but I do suspect it’s resolved sometime in March,” Newton added.