Wall Street ends down as US-Iran peace optimism fades

STORY: U.S. stocks ended lower on Tuesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 each dropping about a third of a percent, and the Nasdaq shedding six-tenths of a percent. Investors became more pessimistic about a peace deal with Iran after one of its top officials said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the U.S. does not change its behavior and accept Iran's conditions to end the war. That kept Brent crude futures near one-week highs. Liz Miller is founder and president of Summit Place Financial Advisors. "I think investors are certainly frustrated at the back-and-forth communication flow and expectations out of our conflict with Iran. But they're also starting to try to look through this. For the longest time, investors have been saying, 'Even if there was a quick end, we knew that the effects on oil would take many months to unfold.' And so it was always about the, you know, the famous words, you know, the duration and the depth of the conflict. And what we're finding out is the depth may not be the problem, but the duration is.” Among the day's movers, tech stocks dragged, with Amazon dipping about 2% and Alphabet and SpaceX each dropping almost 4%. :: Nvidia Alternative asset managers rose, with Apollo Global up more than 6% and Blackstone rallying almost 4%. They were among the financial institutions that recently partnered with Nvidia to establish compute-financing platforms aimed at ‌raising over $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure. And shares of Super Micro Computer rose about 9% in extended trading after the server maker forecast fiscal 2027 revenue above Wall Street expectations, betting that strong demand for its AI-optimized servers would fuel another year of growth. Investors now turn their attention to inflation readings, due over the next two days, which could be crucial in shaping market expectations on the Federal Reserve's policy path.