Why markets are high despite war in the Middle East
Marketplace Morning Report
Marketplace
4.5 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
JD Vance is expected to travel to Islamabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday for potential negotiations with representatives from Iran, but peace talks are still uncertain as the end of the ceasefire approaches. Markets, though, are nearing all-time records. “Marketplace Morning Report” Host Sabri Ben-Achour spoke with Ken Wattret, vice president of global economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence, about the disconnect. Plus, we check in with two plant shop owners about how they’ve been dealing with tariffs, rent, and our broader economy in this installment of Economic Pulse.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What are markets smoking? I mean, thinking. From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Benishore in New York. There are signs the U.S. and Iran could return to the negotiating table in Islamabad Pakistan this week. Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to head there today. Iran's government is reportedly prepared to send negotiators, but everything |
| 0:23.4 | is still very uncertain. And the ceasefire ends Wednesday. Meanwhile, markets are close to all-time |
| 0:29.4 | records. Ken Watrette joins us to talk about it. He's vice president of global economics at |
| 0:33.8 | S&P global market intelligence. Ken, welcome. Thank you for having me. So there are hopes for peace talks this week. |
| 0:40.3 | Oil prices in response to all of this have been up and down all over the place. |
| 0:45.3 | Markets just keep on getting higher and hitting records. |
| 0:50.3 | Can you make that make sense? |
| 0:52.3 | Well, it is remarkable this disconnect between the uncertainty over the conflict and all of its |
| 0:57.1 | potential economic implications and the relative exuberance of risk assets. |
| 1:03.5 | So we have the S&P 500 above its pre-conflict level. |
| 1:07.9 | We've got major equity indexes in, you know, many economies approaching |
| 1:13.2 | their pre-conflict levels. I guess one of the reasons why we could rationalize that is because |
| 1:19.1 | there is a hope that there is a desire on both sides of the conflict to reach a resolution, |
| 1:24.4 | and hopefully that will see some normalization of shipping routes in the |
| 1:30.3 | Gulf. |
| 1:31.3 | And at the same time, we had very strong momentum in some equity markets prior to the conflict. |
| 1:37.3 | You know, there's obviously an AI focus going on, which is providing some support. |
| 1:42.3 | And at the same time, you know, the hope is probably |
| 1:45.1 | that when we come out of this period of uncertainty, the inflationary implications of the shock |
| 1:50.1 | will be relatively limited. Central banks will look through it. And we'll go back to normal in |
| 1:55.0 | terms of economic prospects. That all sounds a little complacent from where we sit. |
| 2:00.6 | The ships that left the Strait of Hormuz before the war are finally arrived. prospects. That all sounds a little complacent from where we sit. |
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