You would not have guessed a war was escalating from the way Wall Street traded. The US struck Iran for a second straight day and Tehran vowed to hit back at American bases, yet stocks rallied. The Nasdaq jumped 1.30%, led by the very chip stocks that had cratered 48 hours earlier, and the whole market breathed easier for one simple reason: oil kept flowing. Tankers were still moving through the Strait of Hormuz, the feared supply shock did not arrive, and so crude and bond yields cooled, and risk appetite came right back.
Market snapshot
| Instrument | Level | Move |
|---|---|---|
| US equities (Thu Jul 9 close) | ||
| Nasdaq Composite | ≈ 26,207 | +1.30% · chip rebound leads |
| S&P 500 | ≈ 7,540 | +0.81% |
| Dow Jones | ≈ 52,470 | +0.27% |
| Chip movers (single stocks) | ||
| Sandisk | rebound | +7.6% |
| Micron | rebound | +5.2% |
| Applied Materials | rebound | +3.2% |
| Energy, metals & forex | ||
| Brent Crude | ≈ $76 | eased · Hormuz keeps flowing |
| Gold (XAU/USD) | ≈ $4,110 | steadied · back above $4,100 |
| USD/JPY | ≈ 162 | near 40-year low |
Figures are verified on live price pages for the Thursday 9 July session. Index levels are rounded; single-stock moves are shown for context. Brent's exact daily change and gold's, which whipsawed intraday, are given directionally rather than to the decimal. Always check live prices with your broker.
The market shrugs off the war
On paper, Thursday should have been ugly. The US military struck Iran for a second consecutive day, aiming to blunt Tehran's ability to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran vowed a large-scale retaliation against American bases in the region. Yet stocks climbed. The reason was hiding in plain sight in the tanker data: despite the strikes, vessels kept transiting Hormuz, and the oil market's worst fear, a real disruption to Gulf supply, once again failed to materialise. With that tail risk fading, the premium that had been baked into crude and Treasury yields came out, and investors treated the conflict as background noise rather than a reason to sell.
Chips lead the rebound
The rally was powered by the same corner of the market that had caused all the drama this week. Semiconductors, which were dumped on Tuesday over AI-valuation and DeepSeek fears, came roaring back. Sandisk jumped 7.6%, Micron rose 5.2% and Applied Materials gained 3.2%, helped by heavy demand for SK Hynix's US share offering, which was massively oversubscribed and signalled that appetite for AI-memory exposure is alive and well. Lower oil and yields gave the financials a lift too, with Goldman Sachs up 2.6% and American Express up 3.1%. It was a broad, healthy advance rather than a narrow one.
Live gold chart (last three months). Prices shown are current, not the session covered above.
Oil cools and gold steadies
Commodities told the calmer side of the story. Brent crude eased back toward $76, giving up a chunk of Wednesday's near-$79 spike, as the market judged that a threat to Iran's exports was, for now, still just a threat. It is worth stressing the "for now": President Trump kept the option of striking Iran's Kharg Island export terminal on the table, and any move there would put the supply shock back on the front burner. Gold, which had fallen for two straight sessions, steadied back above $4,100, near $4,110, as the pullback in the dollar and yields finally gave it room to breathe.
What it means for traders
Zoom out and this week has been a whipsaw: a record high, a chip rout, a war-driven oil spike, and now a shrug-and-rally. Through all of it, one test has decided the direction, whether the Iran conflict is actually disrupting oil. As long as the barrels keep moving, the market files the war under "noise" and goes back to trading the Fed and earnings; the day that changes is the day a strike lands on real infrastructure. That is the single event to watch, alongside any hardening of the Fed's hawkish tone. For a trader, weeks like this are less about being right on the news and more about surviving the swings, which is exactly what disciplined sizing is for: keep risk small per trade, size every position deliberately, and respect how leverage turns a volatile day into a big one. You can trace the escalation that set this up in yesterday's wrap.
This market wrap is for information and education only and is not financial advice, a forecast, or a recommendation to buy or sell any instrument. Prices and percentage moves are approximate, sourced from public price pages and reports, and may be delayed or revised; single-stock moves cited are for context. Trading forex, CFDs and leveraged products carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors; you can lose more than your deposit. Always do your own research.