Oil down, stocks up on report Iran wants talks
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Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Monday, June 16th, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn. Our top story so far. Iran has been sending signals to Israel and the U.S. through Arab intermediaries as it looks to de-escalate the conflict and resume talks over nuclear deals. The Wall Street Journal says Tehran has reached out to Arab officials and said they would be willing to come back to the table as long as the U.S. stays away from the attack. Iran has also sent communications to Israel saying it was best for both sides to keep the violence contained.

Stocks rallied right after the report hit, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow rising up to about 1.5%. U.S. crude and Brent sank nearly 4%, and gold lost 1%.

Among active stocks, ads are coming to WhatsApp, according to an official statement by the messaging platform's parent Meta. The move by Meta will contribute to its already strong ad revenue, which rose 16% to $41.4 billion in the first quarter of this year. The company is introducing ads, along with channel subscriptions and promoted channels, which are expected to boost the reach of businesses and content creators. The ads will appear in the Updates tab under Status and Channels.

Sarepta Therapeutics is plunging after the company reported a second fatality from acute liver failure in a patient treated with Levidus, a gene therapy marketed with Roche for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare muscle disorder. The destination is

The death follows a similar incident three months ago, in which a teenage boy died after receiving the same therapy. Both individuals were unable to walk because of advanced stages of the disease. Sarepta has halted an ongoing clinical trial and temporarily suspended distribution of Alevadis for patients no longer able to walk.

And Roku is rallying after the company and Amazon Ads announced a new integration that gives advertisers access to the largest authenticated connected TV footprint in the U.S. exclusively through Amazon DSP. The new collaboration provides logged-in reach to an estimated 80 million U.S.-connected TV households, representing more than 80% of all U.S. CTV households, according to Comscore data.

In other news of note, cocoa spot prices have retreated from record levels in the last few weeks after increased rain in West Africa helped offset concerns about the impact of tariffs and crop quality. Traders have also pointed out recent concerns about reduced global commodity demand if there is an extended war between Israel and Iran. Meanwhile, the rebound in current cocoa inventories is also considered bearish for prices.

Since falling to a 21-year low in January, ICE-monitored cocoa inventories held at ports in the U.S. have rebounded and climbed to a nine-month high. Cocoa prices began the year at record high levels, peaking at $10.75 per kilogram in January due to poor West African harvests and supply disruptions. However, New York cocoa futures fell 4% last week amid the slightly different backdrop. And in the Wall Street Research Corner...

Whether Trump hates Powell or Powell hates Trump or both or neither, it's clear that the Fed hates White House economic policies, according to TS Lombard economist Dario Perkins. He said,

Don't forget that independent central banks were created to be guardians of neoliberalism. The further we go down the populist route, the greater the policy tensions this creates. Last Thursday, Trump called Powell a numbskull for keeping interest rates on hold and not cutting, and contended that reducing rates by two percentage points would result in $600 billion in annual savings for the U.S.

That's all for today's Wall Street Lunch. Look for links for stories in the show notes section. Don't forget, these episodes will be up with transcriptions at SeekingAlpha.com slash WSB. And join the highest level discussion of any stock or ETF with our community of serious investors like you. Find us at SeekingAlpha.com slash subscriptions.