Los mercados estadounidenses caen por debajo de los 51.500 puntos, los precios del petróleo suben a 104 USD/barra

US stock markets closed weaker on Wednesday, with a decline of 0.68% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to 51,511.59 points, 0.75% for the S&P 500 to 7,706.05 points and 0.85% for the Nasdaq 100 to 30,470.29 points. The Nasdaq had previously completed a recovery rally with a record high. Uncertainty in the markets was reinforced by rising oil prices, which rose to $103.80 per barrel for Brent crude oil (November delivery), an increase of up to 4.5%. Another risk arose from the Strait of Hormuz, where a freight ship was attacked and set on fire again. Iran emphasized in a speech to the UN General Assembly that it would not allow shipping in the region as long as sanctions remained in place, and reiterated its promise to hold talks on a peace agreement without resorting to threats. At the same time, higher yields on US Treasury bonds weighed on the markets: the yield on five-year bonds exceeded the 5% mark for the first time since 2007. Oil prices thus remained a key driver of uncertainty, while the US economy continued to come under pressure due to strong data and speculation about further interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Among individual stocks, McDonald’s was the biggest loser, down 4.8%, after it offered $8.5 billion to franchisors and improve services. Paychex lost 8.8% after the company reported lower-than-expected revenue in the first quarter. In the tech sector, IonQ rose 4.4% after it unveiled a standard-processor based decoder for real-time quantum error correction, a milestone for the industry.