US stocks mixed as oil prices rise further
- S&P 500 dipped 0.1% while Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.4%
Wall Street stocks showed mixed performance as rising oil prices, driven by escalating US-Iran tensions and military actions, prompted a defensive shift in equity markets.
- Rising oil prices amid increased US-Iran military actions.
- Mixed performance of the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq indices.
- Analyst insights on the market's defensive turn due to geopolitical concerns.
NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks were mixed early Wednesday as markets weighed the latest rise in oil prices amid increased US-Iran fighting in the Middle East.
Crude prices were up more than two percent early Wednesday as the US military struck Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth was pressed in Congress about tens of billions of dollars in requested additional funding for the Iran war.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 percent at 52,326.69.
The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.1 percent to 7,500.58, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.4 percent at 25,727.18.
“Festering concerns that the US-Iran standoff is at risk of heating up further, as opposed to cooling off appreciably soon, are behind the spike in oil prices,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare, who described the latest rise in oil prices as a factor in the “defensive-minded turn” in equities.
Among individual companies, US chipmaker AMD rose 0.7 percent after it announced plans to invest up to $5 billion in artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic, as both companies announced a partnership that also includes a major order for processors.
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