THE ongoing hostilities between Israel and the militant group Hamas have had little impact on the US stock markets so far, a top official of American stock exchange and financial technologies provider Nasdaq Inc. said.

“As much as the tragedy in the Middle East is a tragedy, and it’s hard to watch every day at the moment, that’s not impacting the markets to a large degree, unless there’s going to be even more escalation,” Nelson Griggs, president of Capital Access Platforms at Nasdaq Inc., told a media briefing during the company’s 10th anniversary in the Philippines.

The American stock markets, according to Griggs, have been driven by the US 10-year Treasury yield rising to 5.0 percent for the first time in 16 years.

“So, that just drives up expenses for everything. It impacts home loans, auto loans [and] business loans. So, I think that has just gone on a bit longer than we had anticipated,” he noted.

The possible onset of a recession, which has been predicted for much of this year, has also continued to dampen investor sentiment, he added.

“So, those two competing factors are really what we’re watching,” said Griggs.

He added that interest rates will remain higher for a while since a rate cut is expected to be seen only by the first quarter of 2024.

“Our job market is great. People are spending money. So, you have this kind of ongoing inflationary pressure or slight high and high interest rates to kind of put a damper on some of the capital markets activity,” he observed.

“[E]very market is different, but I think a lot of markets will take it to us from where we’re going in the US. And that’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

Griggs, however, said they remain optimistic going into 2024 after having observed a healthy pickup in capital markets activity.