Wall Street extends pull back as higher crude oil prices sour investor sentiments

The US stock market opened in the red on Wednesday, extending its Tuesday’s fall as elevated crude oil prices continued to sour investor sentiment. Crude oil prices jumped over 1.2% on Wednesday as tensions flared in the Middle East region.

The Dow Jones opened over 200 points lower, and the S&P 500 fell 0.2% on Monday evening. The NASDAQ 100 plunged the most, down 0.4% as the tech stocks continued pull the index lower.

Brent crude oil prices crossed over the $100 per barrel mark on Wednesday after the US attacked oil tankers of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Crude oil prices have soared over 5% in three trading sessions, adding fears of high inflation.

Consequently, the US 10Y yields soared over 4.78%, the highest level in over two years, signalling for a rate hike in the coming policy meeting on 16th September. Conversely, tech stocks also came under pressure as higher interest rates pose a major hurdle for tech stocks, which raised huge sums on debt to finance their AI expenditure.

Shares of Alphabet and Amazon plunged more than 1.4% on Wednesday evening. While Apple Inc shares opened flat ahead of the key Apple Day event later today. On the other hand, among the megacaps, Meta Platforms shares rose over 5% on Wednesday after the company launched personal AI Agent, Muse.

The chip maker pack showed mixed performance with Nvidia as the sole major loser at -0.2% losses. On the flip side, shares of Micron Technology (+1.2%), Advances Micro Devices (+3.4%) stood out as gainers.

Meanwhile, the international gold prices firmed up to $4,390 per ounce after the US dollar index weakened. Additionally, the producer price index data and the jobless claims data will be closely monitored to asses the stance of Federal Reserve for coming policy meeting.