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Missile Barrage Deepens Middle East Crisis as Iran Mocks Trump’s Strait Proposal

                                   Emergency personnel respond at a site following Iranian missile barrages in central Israel Iran unleashed multiple waves of missiles on Israel, intensifying a conflict already engulfing the Middle East. The strikes came just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed “very good and productive” talks were underway to halt the war. Israeli officials, however, doubted Iran would accept U.S. terms, and Tehran insisted no negotiations had taken place.  Tehran openly ridiculed Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. and Iran could jointly control the Strait of Hormuz, posting an image of a child’s pink toy steering wheel on social media. The symbolic jab underscored Iran’s rejection of Washington’s overtures and highlighted the growing influence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose former commander Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr was appointed to l...

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Stock Market Edges Higher Ahead of Christmas Break

                                          

US stocks looked set for a mostly muted open to a final, shortened trading session before the Christmas holiday. Futures tied to the S&P 500 (ES=F) were up 0.1%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq (NQ=F) rose 0.2%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) hugged the flatline.

Wall Street is looking to enter its Christmas break rejuvenated, after tech stocks including AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) led the march higher on Monday. Markets close at 1 p.m. ET today and are off tomorrow for Christmas Day. Sizable gains on Friday and Monday have put the indexes back on the path toward their record highs, from which they took a Fed-fueled nosedive last week.

Wall Street is reassessing the path of interest rates next year as it grapples with the reality that the Fed mostly pulled off a so-called soft landing – but couldn’t fully shake the US economy’s inflation problem. According to the CME FedWatch tool, most bets are on two coming holds at the Fed’s January and March meetings, followed by a toss-up in May.

Meanwhile, many eyes continue to be trained on Nvidia, which saw a more than 3.5% gain on Monday. As Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley writes, 2024 was Nvidia’s year, with the stock up some 180%. But 2025 could contain plenty of challenges.



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