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Stock Market Live June 13: S&P 500 (VOO) Tumbles as War Returns to Middle East

Joel South

Published: June 13, 2025 9:08 am

Last Updated: June 13, 2025 4:36 pm

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Friday Wrap-up

4:36 pm

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF closed Friday at 548.77, down 1.1%.

Forget About a Rate Cut, Says JPMorgan

12:15 pm

JPMorgan Chief U.S. Economist Michael Feroli tells investors to expect nothing new out of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. There’s essentially no chance for an immediate cut to interest rates, and Feroli in fact expects a unanimous decision to leave rates unchanged.

Looking farther out, JPMorgan’s best guess is we’ll see only one rate cut later this year, and then perhaps two cuts in 2026.

US Consumer Sentiment Rises (or At Least It Rose)

11:49 am

Disturbing news out of the Middle East met some — perhaps now already stale — positive economic data this morning. For the first time since December, U.S. consumer sentiment improved in June’s preliminary report, rising 8.3 points to 60.5, a better number than had been expected.

It remains to be seen how today’s news on conflict between Israel and Iran will impact consumer sentiment going forward. On a positive note, though, stock market declines have moderated, and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF is now down only 0.4%.

Barclays Loves Oracle

10:43 am

Barclays Capital rewarded Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) for its recent earnings beat by raising its price target on the tech stock to $221 this morning. Reiterating its overweight rating on the shares, Barclays urged Oracle’s growth prospects “should no longer be ignored.”

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.

Israeli warplanes struck multiple targets in Iran over the evening, killing senior Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists, damaging military and nuclear assets — and spooking investors around the globe. Iran has already retaliated with drone strikes on Israel as the situation spirals out of control.

And the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is down 1% in premarket trading.

Conflict in the Middle East always raises worries about the security of oil supply, and this time is no different. Prices of both Brent and WTI crude oil spiked more than $5 per barrel this morning, up 7.9% for Brent, and 8.5% for WTI, from Thursday’s close.

Gold prices also moved higher, up 1.3% to $3,426.31 on the spot market. The US Dollar gained 0.5% against, for example, the safe haven Japanese Yen. And U.S. Treasury bond prices are rising as investors look for safe assets, pushing T-bill yields lower.

Defense stocks

Another logical response to war worries is for investors to buy defense stocks — and they are. In pre-market trading, General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) is up 2.9%, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is gaining 3.1%, and RTX Corporation (NYSE: RTX) is doing best of all, up 2.6%.

Earnings

In more run-of-the-mill earnings news, S&P 500 component company Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE) reported its fiscal Q2 financial results last night. Earnings came in at $5.06 per share, and revenue was $5.9 billion, both numbers better than expected. Guidance was also good, with Adobe forecasting another earnings beat in Q3.

Furniture seller RH (NYSE: RH) also beat expectations last night, reporting a $0.13 per share Q1 profit where analysts had forecast a $0.07 per share loss. Only revenue came in a bit below expectations at $814 million.