Broad U.S. equity indices turned positive in afternoon trading Tuesday, rebounding from earlier losses in response to the attacks in Brussels, Belgium. However, tourism sectors and related exchange traded funds weren’t able to rally with the broader market as traders digested the long-term implications from heightened terror activity.
The the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) was up 0.1% in afternoon Tuesday trading as the S&P 500 Index rose 2.2 points, or 0.1%, to 2,053.8, recovering from an earlier dip in the session.
Financial markets have been reacting swiftly to attacks in Western cities before quickly recovering, reports Riva Gold and Leslie Josephs for the Wall Street Journal.
The market “has largely grown numb to them and shrugged them off,” Keith Bliss, senior vice president at brokerage Cuttone & Co., told the WSJ “Unless we see another attack on the heels of this or another attack in a major metropolitan center…I don’t think the market’s going to react.”
Meanwhile, travel and tourism-related areas remain depressed after explosions hit Brussels’ international airport and subway station. On Tuesday, the broad iShares Transportation Average ETF (NYSEArca: IYT) was 0.6% lower and SPDR S&P Transportation ETF (NYSEArca: XTN) was down 0.4%. IYT includes a 22.7% tilt toward airlines. The U.S. Global Jets ETF (NYSEArca: JETS), the only dedicated global airline industry-related ETF on the market, dipped 0.7% Tuesday on over four times its average daily volume.