U.S. technology shares led declines in major stock indexes on Tuesday as rising oil prices and persistent inflation concerns weighed on rate-sensitive sectors.
The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.3% to 29,070 points, extending losses from the start of the week. The S&P 500 dropped 0.7% to 7,632 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.8% to 52,756 points. The declines followed a mixed performance on Monday, when the Nasdaq 100 had closed modestly higher.
Oil prices climbed further amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, with reports of attacks on crude oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. military strikes against Iranian targets. Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch noted that recent hopes for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz had been dashed by renewed violence. The U.S. Central Command confirmed new strikes against Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions, citing attacks on commercial shipping and U.S. personnel in the region.
Investor focus is also turning to Friday’s U.S. jobs report, with stronger-than-expected data potentially reinforcing expectations of higher interest rates. E*Trade analyst Chris Larkin warned that robust labor market figures could be interpreted as negative for equities, given their implications for monetary policy.
Among individual movers, Fervo Energy surged nearly 28% after The Wall Street Journal reported a power supply agreement with Alphabet’s Google. Nio’s U.S.-listed shares fell 6% despite reporting largely flat vehicle deliveries for August compared with the prior month.
S&P Global shares rose more than 3% after Bloomberg reported the company was considering spinning off its Capital IQ Pro data platform into a standalone entity valued at several billion dollars. GoPro shares extended gains from the previous session, rising nearly 39% and reclaiming the $1 threshold for the first time since early June, following confirmation of a definitive merger agreement with private optics firm Starman Optical.
