Wall St ends sharply lower amid Iran-Israel conflict

Perth Now

16 hours ago

Wall Street has ended sharply lower after Iran launched missiles at Israel in response to intensive Israeli strikes aimed at crippling Iran's ability to build nuclear weapons.
Explosions were heard and seen over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as sirens sounded across Israel following what the country's military spokesman said was the firing of missiles from Iran.
That came after Israel struck nuclear facilities and missile factories in Iran, escalating tensions in the Middle East and undermining global investor confidence.
Oil prices surged nearly 7.0 per cent on fears the conflict could disrupt crude supply from the Middle East.
US energy stocks rose in tandem, with Exxon up 2.2 per cent and Diamondback Energy rallying 3.7 per cent.
"It looks as though we could be in for a full-blown military conflict," Elias Haddad, senior markets strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, said earlier on Friday.
"If it ends up closing down the Strait of Hormuz, where a third of global oil supply goes through, this could have some pretty nasty effect on global markets."
Airline stocks fell on fears that fuel costs could climb.
Delta Air Lines lost 3.8 per cent, United Airlines fell 4.4 per cent and American Airlines declined 4.9 per cent.
Defence stocks climbed, with Lockheed Martin, RTX Corporation and Northrop Grumman all gaining more than 3.0 per cent.
The S&P 500 declined 1.13 per cent to end the session at 5,976.97 points, the Nasdaq declined 1.30 per cent to 19,406.83 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.79 per cent to 42,197.79 points.
Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by financials, down 2.06 per cent, followed by a 1.5 per cent loss in information technology.
Volume on US exchanges was 17.9 billion shares traded compared with an average of 18.2 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.
For the week, the S&P 500 dipped 0.4 per cent, the Nasdaq lost 0.6 per cent and the Dow fell 1.3 per cent.
Photoshop maker Adobe fell 5.3 per cent as concerns that the company's pace of AI adoption was too slow overshadowed an increased annual revenue forecast.
Oracle jumped 7.7 per cent to a record high, rallying for a second day after the technology company gave an upbeat forecast driven by demand for its AI services.
Nvidia dipped 2.1 per cent and Apple lost 1.4 per cent.
Visa and Mastercard both fell more than 4.0 per cent after the Wall Street Journal reported that major retailers are exploring cryptocurrencies that could eliminate the need for payment intermediaries.
A tame consumer price report, softer-than-expected producer price data and largely unchanged initial jobless claims earlier this week helped calm investor jitters around tariff-driven price pressures.
US Federal Reserve policymakers are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at their meeting next week.
With investors betting the United States will reach trade agreements that reduce President Donald Trump's steep trade barriers, the S&P 500 is now trading just below its February record highs.
The University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers showed consumer sentiment improved for the first time in six months in June amid trade uncertainty.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 by a 6.1-to-one ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 10 new highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 37 new highs and 131 new lows.