Wall Street retreats from record highs before the bell as Iran war pushes oil above $100
Wall Street gave back some of its gains this week and oil prices climbed above $100 a barrel Thursday as prospects for peace in Iran remained shaky.
Futures for the S&P 500 lost 0.4% before the opening bell, a day after hitting a record 7,137.90. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%, while futures for the Nasdaq, also coming off a record high, dipped 0.4%.
A growing sense of unease over an end to the Iran war, which is in its eighth week, is weighing on investor sentiment as it's unclear when another round of peace talks will take place. Iran has fired on ships in the Strait of Hormuz despite the extension of a ceasefire from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Global energy prices have surged on the Iran war energy shock. Brent crude, the international standard, was up $1.27 early Thursday at $103.18 per barrel. It was around $70 a barrel before the Iran war began in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude gained $1.21 to $94.17 per barrel.
As hopes for a resolution between the U.S. and Iran fade and peace talks stall, the oil market “is having to reprice expectations,” ING Bank strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a research note.
“If no progress is made, the market will become increasingly numb to the noise and headlines that have dictated price action recently,” they wrote.
Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil normally passed before the war, is still largely halted and the likelihood of its reopening dimmed after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized two of three ships it attacked.
In equities trading, Tesla tumbled more than 3% overnight after Elon Musk's electric car company beat Wall Street's first-quarter expectations but announced a massive $25 billion capital expenditure investment for 2026. Some of that spending to going toward the production ramp up of its Optimus robots, including a new factory in Texas, the company said.
American Airlines on Thursday joined other carriers in cutting performance expectations this year because of soaring jet fuel costs. American’s shares dipped before the opening bell even though its losses were less than expected and it posted strong revenue.
In Europe at midday, Germany's DAX lost 0.5%, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1% higher. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.7%.
Markets in Japan and South Korea briefly touched new records, driven by buying of tech shares. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.8% to 59,140.23 after breaching the 60,000 level for the first time ever.
South Korea’s Kospi closed 0.9% higher at 6,475.81 after briefly surpassing 6,500. The government reported a better-than-expected 1.7% annual economic growth rate for the January-March quarter, boosted by strong exports, particularly of computer chips used in the artificial intelligence boom.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1% to 25,915.20, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.3% to 4,093.25.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.6% to 8,793.40.
Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.4% and the Sensex in India sank 1%.
