U.S. stocks fall on fears Middle East tensions will drag on…Micron plunges 8%

U.S. stocks fell across the board on concerns that tensions in the Middle East could be prolonged.

On the 3rd (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.83% and the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 declined 0.94%. The Nasdaq Composite also slipped 1.02%.

The decline was attributed to remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting the possibility that strikes on Iran could become drawn out.

President Trump said, “From the beginning, we expected about 4 to 5 weeks,” adding, “But the United States can hold out much longer than that.”

He went on to say that “the Army can also be deployed,” not ruling out the possibility of deploying ground troops. On these concerns, major New York indexes at one point fell more than 2% in early trading.

In New York, memory-chipmakers also struggled, with Micron down 7.99%, SanDisk 8.67%, Western Digital 7.21% and Seagate 5.77%. The moves were seen as influenced by the previous day’s steep losses in South Korea, where Samsung Electronics and SK hynix plunged by the 9% and 11% ranges, respectively.

By Noh Jeong-dong, Hankyung.com reporter dong2@hankyung.com