Rising tensions in the Middle East after Iran fired missiles at Israel sent markets into the red and oil higher.
The Dow Jones fell 253 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.9%.
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 4.5%, while Brent rose 4.3%. A jump in the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, above 20 underscored growing concern among traders.
Gold is moving upwards at 1.2%, while the path for other important metals such as platinum and copper is also positive.
“Fear of contagion is always destabilizing,” Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, told CNBC. “Beyond, of course, the primary impact on lives, markets take an immediate hit when there are forces that almost promise some level of destabilization.”
Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors declined. About 4 in 5 S&P 500 stocks traded lower in the session, highlighting broader problems for the market. However, energy names were broadly diversified after the Middle East report, with the S&P 500 sector up more than 1%.
Defense stocks such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin jumped 4.3% and 3.8% respectively, helping the broader defense index rise 1.3%. The Dow Jones Transport Average, which tracks airline stocks, fell 1.3 percent.
Tech names felt the brunt of the decline, accounting for the Nasdaq’s outsized losses. Tesla slipped 4%, while Nvidia and Apple fell more than 3%. But Facebook’s parent company Meta bucked that trend, rising near all-time highs.
Small-cap stocks were also hit, with the Russell 2000 sliding more than 1%.
Source: OT
#Markets #indices #red #Jump #oil
