The third week in June was a truncated due to the Juneteenth holiday on Friday. However, it doesn’t mean that there weren’t any important events that took place over the first four days of the week. Subjectively, the two biggest stories were the June rate decision from the Fed and the tentative end of the war in Iran.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Fed decided to keep interest rates steady at 3.75 percent. However, it is possible that the Fed will decide to hike rates at least once this year if inflation continues to remain sticky at levels above 3 percent. Earlier in June, it was revealed that inflation was 4.2 percent on an annualized basis in May.

Fed Chair Warsh said that he didn’t think that the Fed had to choose between inflation and employment when making monetary policy. Traditionally, the central bank has had a dual mandate to ensure full employment and price stability. It appears that inflation will be the priority even if it leads to softness in employment numbers.

On Monday, a memorandum of understanding was reached between the United States and Iran. That sent oil prices plummeting to below $80 a barrel as it appears that the Strait of Hormuz will be open to all traffic soon. Of course, this is not an official end to the war, and President Trump has said that he will be open to further hostilities.

Also on Wednesday, retail sale data for May came in and revealed that sales were up 0.9 percent compared to an expected 0.5 percent. Core retail sales were up 0.8 percent compared to an expected increase of 0.6 percent.

On Thursday, unemployment claims remained steady coming in at 226,000 for the last seven days. This was compared to 230,000 a week ago. The actual figure was roughly in line with what analysts expected prior to the release.

The S&P 500 was up over 1 percent over the four trading days this week to close at 7,500. This is a gain of more than 100 points for an index that is up about 1 percent over the past four weeks. This week, it made a high of 7,573 on Monday and a low of 7,408 on Wednesday.

The Dow was up more than 750 points to close at 51,564 on Thursday afternoon. As with the S&P 500, the Dow has rewarded investors with positive returns over the past month and the past year. It is up almost 4 percent since mid-May and over 22 percent since this time in 2025. For the week, it made a high of 52,236 on Wednesday and a low of 51,500 later that same day.

Finally, the Nasdaq was up over 3 percent and closed trading on Thursday at 26,517. This was a gain of more than 800 points.

In international news, Australia announced early Tuesday morning that it would keep its key interest rate at 4.35 percent. Japan also announced early Tuesday that it would increase the country’s main rate to about 1 percent. On Thursday, Switzerland opted to keep its key rate at 0 percent while Great Britain kept its rate unchanged at 3.75 percent.

The upcoming week will likely be another interesting one as markets continue to deal with the aftermath of the end of the Iran war. In addition, the Core PCE Price Index for May will be released on Thursday along with unemployment claim data. International traders will likely look forward to inflation data coming out of Australia, Canada and Japan.