Markets Gain on Muted Response from Iran

Monday, June 23, 2025

Market participants took today’s global headline of a thwarted attack from Iran on a U.S. Air Force base in the small country of Qatar as a form of good news for equities today. Calls for peace in the region from President Trump look to have been taken to heart — if not by the mullahs in charge of Iran, then by traders in today’s stock indexes.

The Dow closed up +384 points on the session, +0.90%, while the S&P 500 performed marginally better, +0.96%. The Nasdaq gained +224 points, +1.03% today, and the small-cap Russell 2000 rose +1.05%. All indexes ended regular trading at or near session highs. Bond yields remained steady (10-year +4.34%) or lower (2-year +3.85%).

Oil prices ratcheted down considerably today, helping equities improve their performance. At this point, any warlike shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz — which passes 20 million barrels of petroleum products per day, or nearly 30% of the world's oil trade — do not appear to be on the table. As a result, WTI spot crude prices fell -8% to $67.67 per barrel and Brent dropped -6.3%, to $67.73 per barrel.
 

KB Home Beats Q2 Earnings, Lowers Guidance

Shares of Los Angeles-based homebuilder KB Home KBH are down -3.4% in late trading today, directly following a five-cent beat on its bottom line to $1.50 per share (though down from $2.15 per share in the year-ago quarter) on $1.53 billion in quarterly sales, higher than the $1.50 billion in the Zacks consensus. Deliveries were slightly ahead of estimates, with the average price per home $488,700.

But full-year revenues (ending November) for the Zacks Rank #4 (Sell)-rated KB Home were reduced to a range of $6.30-6.50 billion from the $6.64 billion analysts were anticipating. The homebuilder has now outperformed on earnings estimates in nine of the last 10 quarters. Shares are now down roughly -20% year to date.

Other News Items from Today’s Stock Market

S&P flash Services PMI for June came in a smidge ahead of expectations this morning, registering 53.1 versus a 53.0 consensus. This is down from the unrevised 53.7 headline for May but notably higher than the 50.8 reported for April. Strong growth momentum stemmed from plenty of domestic demand for services.

S&P flash Manufacturing PMI, also for June, slightly outpaced estimates this morning as well: 52.0 matches the previous month’s unrevised level and comes in half a point higher than analysts were looking for. Factory production rose for the first time in four months, and higher prices managed to be passed on to consumers.

Existing Home Sales for May also surpassed forecasts earlier today, with 4.03 million seasonally adjusted, annualized units ahead of the expected 3.95 million. This follows a downwardly revised 3.95 million units. Gains came from the Northeast first, +4.2%, followed by +2.1% in the Midwest and +1.7% in the South. Only the West posted a negative figure: -5.4%.

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