Markets Close Higher as Iran Fears Abate

Wednesday, March 4th, 2026

After threatening to reverse course and trade in the red shortly after the market opened this morning, market indexes were on an even keel through most of this Hump Day session. The Dow gathered +238 points today, +0.49%, while the S&P 500 was up +52 points, +0.78%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which had been saddled lately with doubts about AI infrastructure spending, outperformed the field: +290 points, +1.29%, which the small-cap Russell 2000 gained +30 points, +1.19%.

Clearly the worry over the U.S./Israel attack on Iran over the weekend is not sustaining, for whatever reason. We’re seeing some moving pieces today with a vote on a War Powers Resolution, but even that appears murky from this vista. Basically, the market is betting near-term that we don’t have another quagmire on our hands, like we did when the U.S. invaded Iraq 23 years ago and stayed there the better part of two decades.

We saw better-than-expected private-sector jobs numbers from ADP ADP this morning — +63K versus expectations for +48K — but the downward revision for the prior month shows a trailing 4-month average of new private-sector job gains of just +24K. Compare this with the already paltry +30K per month brought in during the previous 4 months. The good news is the labor market is not falling off a cliff. The bad news is there is no other good news.

ISM Services productivity saw a better-than-expected gain this morning: +56.1% for February easily surpassed the +53.5% analysts had been looking for. That said, final S&P Services PMI came in at +51.7 — still above the crucial 50 threshold, but 1200 basis points lower month over month, and below projections. So consider this a wash, ultimately.
 

Earnings at a Glance After the Close: AVGO, AEO

Semiconductor major Broadcom AVGO beat earnings estimates by 2 cents per share in its fiscal Q1 report released after today’s close to $205 per share, up appreciably from the $1.60 reported in the year-ago quarter on AI infrastructure demand. Revenues of $19.31 billion narrowly edged the $19.29 billion in the Zacks consensus. Shares are roughly flat on the news, however, and still roughly -8% year to date — even as the company updated its dividend and ushers in a new program for $10 billion in share repurchasing.

American Eagle Outfitters AEO, a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock at the time of its Q4 earnings report, outpaced estimates strongly on its bottom line, with earnings of 84 cents per share easily surpassed the 71 cents expected, and the 54 cents per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $1.76 billion were ahead of the $1.73 billion anticipated, with same-store sales up +8% year over year. Yet the stock can’t sustain momentum after an initial boost, and is trading down another -2% in after hours.

Q4 earnings season marches on beginning Thursday morning, with Kroger KR and Burlington Stores BURL reporting ahead of tomorrow’s opening bell and Costco COST, The Gap GAP and Marvell Technologies MRVL taking the honors after the close.

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