SPY, QQQ, DIA Have Second-Best Day Since Start Of Iran War — Vance To Reportedly Lead Talks With Tehran

• Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Vice President JD Vance would lead negotiations with Iran, with the initial round of talks expected to occur on Saturday.
• Meanwhile, Iran has said that the U.S. violated ceasefire terms amid Israeli strikes in Lebanon. 
• The White House has said that Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire deal.

U.S. stock markets had the second-best day since the start of the Iran war amid growing optimism for a ceasefire deal that would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz to ease global oil supply concerns.

The benchmark S&P 500 index closed up 2.5% on Wednesday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.85% at market close.

Meanwhile, the White House said that the U.S. would engage in direct conversation with Iran about a ceasefire, with Vice President JD Vance leading negotiations, even as Israeli strikes in Lebanon threaten talks.

Iran War Negotiations

In a press conference on Wednesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Vance would lead a U.S. delegation to Islamabad, Pakistan, with the initial round of talks expected to occur on Saturday morning local time.

Earlier in the day, Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an X post that the terms of the ceasefire had been violated. “The Iran–U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Araghchi said.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also said in a social media post that the U.S. had violated three parts of the 10-point ceasefire proposal, adding that a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations under the circumstances was “unreasonable.”

Meanwhile, the White House said that Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire deal. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump agreed to postpone attacks on Iran by two weeks after Pakistan’s Prime Minister urged both countries to negotiate a deal.

Market Reaction

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, closed up 2.55% on Wednesday, although it slid about 0.15% in after-market hours at the time of writing.

The Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) closed 2.97% higher, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) was up 2.85% at close. Both were in red in extended trading hours.

Meanwhile, the United States Oil Fund ETF (USO) closed down about 9.8%, while the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil ETF (UCO) was down about 2.76% at close.

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