Iran war ceasefire offers investors opportunity to rotate back into risk-on assets, investors say
Stocks staged a relief rally following the temporary ceasefire deal between Iran and the U.S., but it’s still prime time for investors to scoop up shares, investors told CNBC’s ” Halftime Report ” on Wednesday. “[President Donald] Trump was clearly looking for an off ramp for the last couple of weeks…I just don’t believe we go back to the depths of worries that we had,” said Stephen Weiss, chief investment officer of Short Hills Capital Partners. “I think it sets up very positively for the market to move higher.” The major averages surged Wednesday after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, pausing a five-week conflict that had spread across the Middle East and roiled global markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared roughly 2.9%, or more than 1,300 points higher, marking its best day since April 2025. Retail investors may be reassessing their defensive portfolio strategies and seeking buying opportunities. Shannon Saccocia, chief investment officer – wealth for Neuberger Berman recommends investors allocate at least some of their portfolio to risk-on assets like technology stocks, particularly ahead of a potentially blockbuster earnings season that is kicking off this month. “Areas like technology and financials and parts of the industrial sector, those are areas where we felt those valuations were vulnerable in June, July [and] August of last year, [but] those have become more attractive, consistent and coincident with continued economic momentum,” Saccocia said. There’s “an opportunity to potentially move back into some of those names as we start to see the relative attractiveness of U.S. large caps come back to the fore,” she added. Joe Terranova, senior managing director at Virtus Investment Partners, highlighted Alphabet and said that the market’s action reflected a “growth story.” He noted the Google parent is up more than 1% in 2026, making it the highest performing name in the “Magnificent Seven.” “We finally have a Mag Seven name that is higher for 2026,” Terranova said. “You want to focus on…the fact that [the rally] is a return to momentum, the fact it is a return to growth.”