NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Wednesday as crude oil prices and bond yields climbed, while investors assessed the latest developments from the US-Iran talks to end the Middle East conflict ahead of the high-stakes Washington-Beijing summit.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said at the UN that Tehran would never surrender to the US, but still believes in diplomacy, a day after President Donald Trump threatened to “annihilate” Iran.
The dueling speeches bookended the first US-Iran shuttle talks in months, underscoring the lack of progress toward ending the Middle East conflict.
Meanwhile, Brent crude prices climbed over 3 percent after five straight sessions of declines, bouncing off a near two-week low.
Yields on two-year US government bonds touched their highest since 2024, while those on 10-year Treasury notes hit their highest since 2007, adding to market concerns that the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates further.
A survey showed US business activity raced to a more than five-year high in September, spurring government bond yields higher.
“This report indicates that downstream price pressures remain intense, but it paints a more mixed picture of pass-through to consumers,” said Oliver Allen, senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Eight out of 11 S&P 500 sectors were trading lower, with utilities leading declines. It was down 1.6 percent.
Chip-related companies came under pressure, including AMD , Nvidia and Intel. The broader Philadelphia chips index shed 1.5 percent and was set to snap a six-session winning streak.
Meta Platforms rose 2.8 percent, building on its more than 13 percent jump so far this week following strong reception of its AI assistant Muse, which analysts say could benefit tech infrastructure stocks, while also spurring AI disruption chatter in pockets of the market.
Online travel-related companies, including Expedia, Airbnb and Booking Holdings, were among the biggest laggards on the S&P 500.
In the previous session, the tech-heavy Nasdaq notched its first intraday record high since early June, as optimism around AI remains a dominant theme on Wall Street.
At 11:44 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 279.08 points, or 0.54 percent, to 51,585.28, the S&P 500 lost 41.98 points, or 0.54 percent, to 7,722.66 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 250.05 points, or 0.92 percent, to 26,994.22.
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