The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) found firmer footing on Monday, kicking off the new trading week on a high note and paring away most of the late-week losses that pushed indexes into the red last Friday. Israel launched strikes against Iranian targets under the auspices of denying Iran access to nuclear weapons. Israel is one of only four countries to not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and is also not a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Despite Israel's strikes quickly spiraling out into barrages of missile launches between Iran and Israel that continued through the weekend and into Monday, investors are still banking on a potential ceasefire, or at least a cooling of constantly rising Middle East tensions. Equities rallied on Monday following headlines from the Wall Street Journal that Iran was "open" to the idea of engaging in peace talks with Israel. However, the Iranian government, through the Qatari state-controlled media outlet Al Jazeera, denied the reports as false. Undeterred, traders are hedging their bets that a resolution will be found, rather than continuing to boil over into a widespread conflict.

Aggregated consumer sentiment figures rose for the first time in almost seven months last week, adding further pressure on the long side. Rebounding consumer sentiment comes at a time when Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers are still locked in "wait and see" mode on possible economic fallout from the Trump administration's whiplash trade "policies", which primarily consist of threatening and then canceling widespread import taxes.

Source: Fxstreet