Dow down 0.77%, Nasdaq down 0.64%

Brent crude at $101, US 10-year yield at 4.85%

The New York Stock Exchange. (Getty Images)
The New York Stock Exchange. (Getty Images)

Wall Street's three major indexes fell for a third consecutive session as crude oil prices topped $100 a barrel and US Treasury yields surged.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 52,380.66 on Wednesday (local time), down 405.41 points, or 0.77 percent, from the previous session.

The S&P 500 fell 37.16 points, or 0.48 percent, to 7,636.36, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 168.07 points, or 0.64 percent, to 26,253.34.

Investor sentiment was weighed down by concerns that rising tensions between the United States and Iran could prolong disruptions to oil supplies.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Wednesday it destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in response to an attack on a US military vessel by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Brent crude for November delivery settled at $101.21 a barrel on the London ICE Futures exchange that day, up $3.29, or 3.36 percent, from the previous session -- its highest closing price since May 22.

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery also rose, gaining $3.02, or 3.25 percent, to close at $96.05 a barrel.

US President Donald Trump suggested that global oil prices could remain elevated at least until the US midterm elections in November, citing the war with Iran.

"The oil prices will crash right after the midterms. We are going to make that happen, and I believe gas prices will fall below $2 a gallon," Trump said, adding, "It looks like it will take a little more time than the midterms."

As the spike in oil prices adds to inflationary pressure, some expect the US Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate. Markets are closely watching this week's US producer price index and consumer price index data.

Should the data show strong inflationary pressure, the likelihood of a Fed rate hike in September could increase. A slowdown in price growth would strengthen the case for the Fed to hold rates steady.

A rise in US Treasury yields also weighed on the stock market. The US Treasury Department announced that day it would buy back up to $6 billion in long-term government bonds on Thursday, but yields rose instead after the amount fell short of the $8 billion to $10 billion some market participants had expected.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note topped 4.85 percent during trading, its highest level since November 2023.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 0.37 percent. American depositary receipts of Micron and SK hynix gained 2.75 percent and 7.05 percent, respectively. Seo Sang-young, a managing director at Mirae Asset Securities, said, "The Citi and Goldman Sachs conferences showed that AI is expanding from training to inference use, and the Astra issue that has recently driven the rally continued, pushing shares higher."

Gold prices rose. December gold futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled at $4,458.80 an ounce, up 0.5 percent from the previous session.


moon@heraldcorp.com