NEW YORK – Wall Street ended lower on Aug 11, with Amazon and Alphabet dipping, as investors became more pessimistic about a potential deal to bring stability to the Middle East.
The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the US does not change its behaviour and accept Iran’s conditions to end the war, the newly appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said.
Brent crude futures held near one-week highs in choppy trading, while the S&P 500 energy sector index climbed 1.1 per cent.
“As has been the case for months, it’s just really hard to come to an agreement that works for everyone. Oil is a little higher, pricing in more uncertainty around that,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky.
“The market has obviously gyrated around this conflict at times, but it hasn’t been the big headwind that a lot of people imagined it might be.”
Amazon dipped 2.1 per cent and Alphabet fell 3.8 per cent, both weighing on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
SpaceX declined almost 4 per cent.
Alternative asset managers rose, with Apollo Global up 6.2 per cent and Blackstone rallying almost 4 per cent. They were among financial institutions that recently partnered with Nvidia to establish compute-financing platforms aimed at mobilising more than US$500 billion (S$640 billion).
The S&P 500 declined 0.32 per cent to 7,728.20 points.
The Nasdaq dropped 0.6 per cent to 26,445.45 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.34 per cent to 53,791.85 points.
Even as the S&P 500 dipped, advancing issues outnumbered falling ones by a 1.2-to-one ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 22 new highs and one new low; the Nasdaq recorded 108 new highs and 75 new lows.
Strong quarterly earnings helped lift the S&P 500 to all-time highs last week, while the Nasdaq was down about 2 per cent from its record high close on June 2.
Signs that heavy investments by Microsoft and Amazon in AI data centers are paying off have also lifted sentiment.
Consumer and producer price inflation readings, due over the next two days, will be crucial in shaping market expectations on the Federal Reserve’s policy path, given chairman Kevin Warsh’s goal of reducing guidance on monetary policy.
Traders are split over the likelihood of an interest rate hike at the central bank’s September meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Rising energy costs, stemming from the Iran conflict, have spurred inflation concerns and complicated the paths of central banks globally.
Jabil climbed 5.9 per cent after UBS upgraded the electronics firm’s stock to “buy” from “neutral.”
US-listed shares of On tumbled 20.3 per cent after the sportswear brand missed sales estimates.
LNG company Venture Global fell 7.3 per cent after its second-quarter revenue slightly missed estimates.
Volume on US exchanges was relatively light, with 15 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 17.6 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. REUTERS
