Wall Street Closes Lower for Second Straight Day Amid Middle East Crisis

The three major U.S. stock indices finished lower for the second consecutive session.

The Nasdaq gave up the 26,000 mark, and the S&P 500 slipped back to the 7,500 range in three trading sessions.

By sector, consumer discretionary and utilities fell 1%, while energy gained nearly 2%.

The main weights pressing down on the stock market today were soaring international oil prices and the steep rise in U.S. Treasury yields.

With Saudi Arabia's crucial East-West pipeline shut down and Libyan oil field operations suspended due to airstrikes by Yemen's Houthi rebels, WTI crude surpassed 105 dollars per barrel.

Fears have grown that supply disruptions of crude oil originating from the Middle East will reignite inflation.

As inflationary pressures intensified due to rising oil prices, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note broke through 5% during the session, hitting its highest level since 2007.

Meanwhile, the market is closely watching the FOMC meeting results, which are due out at 3:00 AM tomorrow, Korea time.

Amid high inflation and high oil prices, expectations have risen above 90% that the Federal Reserve will raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, resuming monetary tightening for the first time in three years.

On the other hand, some AI semiconductor stocks that had plunged, such as NVIDIA and AMD, recovered their losses as bargain hunting flowed in.

Ahead of remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Kevin and the release of the dot plot, the market's attention is focused on whether the interest rate hike will end as a simple one-time adjustment or serve as the starting signal for additional increases.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.