Wall Street erases losses after Donald Trump quits Iran nuclear deal

Wall Street cut losses to end little changed on Tuesday while energy stocks rallied after US President Donald Trump said the United States would quit the Iran nuclear deal, confirming what many investors had expected.

In a televised speech, Trump said the United States would withdraw from a 2015 international agreement designed to deny Tehran the ability to build nuclear weapons, and also reinstate sanctions on Iran.

The S&P energy sector erased earlier losses to end the day up 0.78 per cent as oil prices reduced earlier declines on bets that the sanctions would disrupt global crude supplies.

"You have seem some modest flight to quality, though it hasn't been major," said Brian Daingerfield, macro strategist at NatWest Markets in Stamford, Connecticut. "There's still quite a bit of uncertainty about the future of the deal even now that the U.S. has made its intentions clear."