Markets reacted tepidly to the new Ayatollah’s inaugural address on Thursday as investors gave a thumbs down to the signals coming out of Tehran, with the Dow Jones down 570 points, the S&P 81 points, and the NASDAQ shedding 336 as of midday, CNBC reports on a total goose egg for traders.
Expectations for the Ayatollah to be responsive to regular Iranians afraid to look at how their 401Ks are doing weren’t particularly high but important bear market-moving news tends to give leaders the jitters no matter what, so it’s not clear what Tehran’s next play is. No meetings are scheduled between the Ayatollah and rock star CEOs like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang or OpenAI whiz Sam Altman just yet, though Tehran’s economic leadership team is still getting settled in. That’s when analysts should want to start recommending buys for stocks expected to grow under the new administration.
For now however, investors are in a holding-with-a-lot-of-selling pattern to see whether policymakers in Tehran will be fully in tune with the rhythm and pulse of Wall Street.