PiCK
Wall Street’s Three Main Indexes Fall as Renewed Middle East Tensions Lift Oil, Treasury Yields
Summary
- Renewed Middle East tensions lifted international oil prices and U.S. Treasury yields at the same time, sending Wall Street’s three main indexes lower.
- Brent crude futures and WTI futures rose to $97.81 and $96.02 a barrel, respectively, fueling concern that elevated oil prices could persist.
- U.S. 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields broke above key psychological levels, while memory-chip stocks including Micron, SanDisk, and Western Digital extended gains even as the broader tech sector weakened.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Memory shares including Micron and SanDisk stay strong despite weakness in technology stocks
U.S. stocks closed lower across the board on June 3 as renewed tensions in the Middle East pushed up oil prices and U.S. Treasury yields, with no progress in talks to end the conflict between the United States and Iran.
At the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 620.72 points, or 1.21%, to 50,687.07.
The S&P 500 dropped 56.10 points, or 0.74%, to 7,553.68, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 239.93 points, or 0.89%, to 26,853.98. The decline ended nine-session winning streaks for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
Rising oil prices and higher bond yields linked to the escalating Middle East tensions weighed on investor sentiment. Early in the day, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had attacked a U.S. Air Force base in Kuwait and the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain in response to strikes on an Iranian oil tanker and a communications tower on Qeshm Island.
Iran described the airstrikes as retaliation for recent U.S. attacks. U.S. forces had struck facilities including radar installations on Qeshm Island on June 1 and disabled an Iranian oil tanker with a missile on June 2.
As military exchanges between the United States and Iran resumed, Brent crude futures settled up 1.9% at $97.81 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 2.4% to $96.02 a barrel.
Concerns about a prolonged period of high oil prices pushed Treasury yields higher. Bond yields move inversely to prices. According to electronic trading platform Tradeweb, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was 4.49% near the close of New York stock trading, up 0.03 percentage point from the previous session.
The 10-year yield briefly rose above the psychologically important 4.5% level during the session. At the same time, the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield stood at 4.99%, up 0.02 percentage point from the previous session, after also briefly topping the 5.0% threshold earlier in the day.
Technology shares were mostly weaker, with AI chip heavyweight Nvidia falling 3.62%. Even so, memory-chip stocks that have led the recent rally extended their gains, including Micron Technology, up 1.45%, SanDisk, up 6.71%, and Western Digital, up 5.51%.
Kang Kyung-ju, Hankyung.com reporter, qurasoha@hankyung.com
Korea Economic Daily
hankyung@bloomingbit.ioThe Korea Economic Daily Global is a digital media where latest news on Korean companies, industries, and financial markets.
