Stocks Fall as Iran Tensions Flare Up, Oil Gains: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Stocks dropped as Middle East tensions flared up with new US attacks on Iran, weighing on markets already grappling with a selloff in richly valued tech stocks. Oil climbed.
MSCI’s Asian equities gauge fell 0.7% after American forces launched strikes on multiple targets in Iran for a second straight day. The gauge briefly edged up as US military said it completed the strikes. The weak sentiment at the start of the Asian day stabilized with futures contracts for the Nasdaq 100 Index reversing earlier losses to rise as much as 0.6%.
Brent crude rose 1.4% to around $95 a barrel after climbing above $95 at the start of Thursday’s trading. Gold climbed almost 1% to $4,110 an ounce. Treasuries were little changed after dropping Wednesday on bets the Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates to counter inflation.
The latest US strikes have injected more volatility into global financial markets and threaten to further crimp oil supplies. Even after Wednesday’s softer-than-expected US inflation report offered a brief reprieve, traders continued to price in higher borrowing costs, while a continued selloff in semiconductor stocks cast doubt on the sustainability of the record equity rally.
“Investors remain skittish despite being thrown a lifeline by the inflation figures,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG. “It is now a case of ‘once bitten, twice shy.’ No one wants to go charging in to buy the dip yet, which suggests more of a drift lower for the time being, though leaving the overall trend intact.”
Earlier, the US Central Command said it had begun what it called the “additional self-defense strikes,” which followed action on Tuesday in retaliation for the downing of a US helicopter. The moves underscored President Donald Trump’s growing impatience that the US and Iran have so far failed to reach an agreement.
The attacks also reinforced the view that an April ceasefire has effectively collapsed, despite the absence of a return to the large-scale bombing campaign seen at the start of the conflict.
“Investors have lived with this conflict for months now, and each fresh headline carries a little less shock value than the last,” said Josh Gilbert, lead analyst for Asia Pacific and the Middle East at Etoro Ltd. “It still feels like we’re far away from any real resolution, and although we’re seeing some relief from markets, it comes after a brutal few days.”
In the US, shares of chipmakers including Nvidia Corp. and other AI infrastructure companies, this year’s biggest winners, fell for a second day Wednesday. Oracle Corp. shares slipped in extended trading after reporting quarterly capital expenses that were higher than estimates.
Elsewhere, the yen was little changed at 160.49 per dollar with Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda hospitalized. He is expected to miss next week’s policy meeting, the central bank said.
Meanwhile, the core consumer price index in the US, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 0.2% from April, under the 0.3% consensus forecast among economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Even so, bond traders maintained bets that the Fed would raise rates by the end of the year. While Treasury yields initially dipped after the data on Wednesday, they resumed climbing with oil prices later in the session. Interest-rate swaps showed traders are still fully pricing in a rate hike by December.
“It’s clear that rate cuts are off the table, and while there is chatter about a potential rate hike, we believe it’s unlikely that we’ll see a rate hike before the midterm elections,” Skyler Weinand, chief investment officer at Regan Capital, wrote in a note.
Corporate Highlights:
SpaceX’s initial public offering has attracted orders worth more than four times the shares on offer, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is selling 555.6 million shares at $135 apiece, a deal that would raise about $75 billion and value the company at roughly $1.8 trillion. Super Micro Computer Inc. sank after the company announced a plan to raise $7 billion through a package of equity offerings, a move meant to help pay for the production of more AI servers. Shares of several large trucking companies plunged after Amazon.com Inc. announced an expansion of its shipping service that has already shaken the transportation and logistics sector and unsettled investors. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc and Fifth Third Bancorp won dismissal of a fraud lawsuit filed by holders of notes issued by Tricolor Holdings, the bankrupt subprime auto lender. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 10:57 a.m. Tokyo time Nikkei 225 futures (OSE) fell 1.2% Japan’s Topix fell 1.2% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1% The Shanghai Composite fell 0.2% Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 0.5% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro rose 0.2% to $1.1554 The Japanese yen was little changed at 160.49 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.7787 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin rose 0.7% to $62,163.63 Ether rose 0.8% to $1,642.2 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.55% Japan’s 10-year yield was unchanged at 2.675% Australia’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.90% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.8% to $91.65 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.7% to $4,101.15 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Matthew Burgess, Winnie Hsu and Aya Wagatsuma.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
