Oil Rises on Escalation Fears; Software Stocks Retreat — WSJ
By Hannah Erin Lang and Caitlin McCabe
Stocks closed lower Thursday, with oil rising amid signs of potentially escalating hostilities in the Middle East.
The Nasdaq composite led indexes lower, falling 0.9%. The Dow industrials dropped 0.4%, or 181 points. The S&P 500 retreated 0.4%.
Oil prices rose for a fourth straight session, with the front-month Brent crude contract rising 3.1% to $105.07 a barrel as traders grow increasingly uneasy over the lack of progress on U.S.-Iran diplomacy and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel is prepared to escalate military operations against Iran, the country's defense minister, Israel Katz, said in a recorded statement on Thursday. President Trump also said he has ordered the Navy to "shoot and kill any boat" laying mines in the strait, as the U.S. and Iran jostle for control of the vital waterway.
Meanwhile, first-quarter earnings are back in focus.
The software-as-a-service, or SaaS, sector is in the hot seat and dragging on major U.S. indexes. Shares of cloud-based software company ServiceNow plunged 18% - the company's quarterly earnings update on Wednesday showed rising revenue, but traders are fixating on a cut to its projected operating margin.
IBM stock slumped 8.3% after the company disappointed investors by keeping its revenue guidance the same. Among "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks, Microsoft was also hit with the software selloff, losing 4%. Tesla shares were down 3.6% after it outlined plans to plow $25 billion into capital expenditures this year as it pursues its AI and robotics ambitions.
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).
No comments:
Post a Comment