Major US equity benchmarks declined on Thursday as crude prices advanced on intensifying Middle East conflict.
At 10:04 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 218.84 points, or 0.45%, to 46,017.96, the S&P 500 lost 32.62 points, or 0.49%, to 6,592.08 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 148.57 points, or 0.67%, to 22,004.27.
At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 90.3 points, or 0.20%, to 46,134.87. The S&P 500 fell 41.6 points, or 0.63%, to 6,583.12, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 281.4 points, or 1.27%, to 21,871.037.
The small-caps Russell 2000 index tumbled 10% from its all-time intraday high.
The surging energy costs have revived inflation worries that have prompted the US Federal Reserve to take a cautious stance on interest rate cuts.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday left rates unchanged. Chair Jerome Powell flagged higher inflation ahead.
The European Central Bank raised its inflation forecast while leaving interest rates on hold. The Bank of England and Bank of Japan also kept rates steady.
“The shift in rate-cut expectations has been a major buzzkill for the stock market, which is also sobering up at the sight of rising Treasury yields,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare according to AFP.
Crude Oil
Oil prices shot up again on Thursday, briefly touching $119 a barrel, after Iran intensified its attacks on oil and gas hubs around the Persian Gulf in response to an Israeli attack on an important Iranian natural gas field.
Brent crude, the international standard, briefly rose above $119 per barrel in the morning before pulling back to $110.80, which is still a 3.2% rise from the previous close. A barrel of benchmark US crude added 0.7% to $96.09.
Key Stock Movers
Rivian stock jumped 7.5% after Uber announced its investment plans of up to $1.25 billion in the company to purchase 10,000 “fully autonomous” robotaxis with an option for 40,000 more. Uber stock rose 0.9%.
Micron Technology stock fell 7.3% despite reporting record quarterly revenues.
Shares of SanDisk and Applied Digital fell more than 2% each, while AI chip giant Nvidia lost 1.5%.
Miners Newmont and Freeport-McMoRan dipped 8.7% and 7.5%, respectively, tracking decline in precious metals.
Travel stocks such as Delta Air and United fell more than 1%, while cruise stocks such as Norwegian and Carnival were down 0.5%.
Bullion Market
Gold prices slumped on Thursday, falling for a seventh consecutive session, as energy prices increased.
By 8:46 a.m. ET (1246 GMT), spot gold fell 5.5% to $4,552.38 per ounce. US gold futures for April delivery fell 7% to $4,554.70.
In other metals, spot silver fell 10.7% to $67.26 per ounce. Spot platinum fell 6.8% to $1,886.13, and palladium lost 4.1% to $1,415.41.
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