US stock market tumbles on geopolitical worries; NASDAQ 100, Dow plunge over 400 points; Google, Tesla top losers after earnings

US stock markets opened in the red on Thursday as investors turned cautious over escalating fears from the Middle East. The Dow Jones and NASDAQ 100 opened over 300 points lower, led by a sharp fall in tech stocks. The S&P 500 dipped 0.9% on Thursday at 7:15 pm.

Crude oil prices have extended their rally for the fifth consecutive session, soaring over 15%. The Brent crude oil price traded near $100 per barrel for the first time since May 2026. Similarly, the WTI crude oil price soared over $90 per barrel, up over 5% on Thursday. President Trump warned that the Houthis’ attack on Saudi ships will be considered an attack by Iran, using the Houthis as a proxy, further aggravating the tensions between Iran and the US.

Meanwhile, European markets traded in the red after the US military conducted strikes against Iran for the twelfth consecutive night, with both sides increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure. Asian markets closed mostly in the green as renewed AI optimism helped offset escalating Middle East tensions.

At the stock-specific level, shares of the Magnificent Seven were among the key index draggers on Thursday. Alphabet (-6%) and Tesla (-12.5%) were the top two losers among the megacaps after they released quarterly earnings on Wednesday. Further in the queue, Amazon Inc, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft also fell as much as 4% on Thursday, intensifying the broader selloff.

Meanwhile, some buying emerged in chip stocks like Micron (+2.3%), AMD (+0.8%), and Intel Corporation (+1.0%) as they bucked the broader trend to trade in the green.

Alphabet Q2 earnings

Alphabet posted robust earnings growth in Q2 across the board. The company’s revenue jumped 21% to $119 billion. The net income swelled 298% due to other income from unrealised equity gains. Beyond earnings growth, Alphabet announced it will increase its AI-related expenditure to $205 billion in 2027 to meet the exploding AI-cloud computing demand. Despite the company’s buoyancy on AI expenditure, investors remain cautious about the overwhelming expenditure on AI infrastructure.

Tesla earnings

Tesla shares plunged 12% on Thursday after Q2 earnings failed to meet the consensus estimates. The adjusted EPS stood at $0.33 per share, slightly higher than the estimates. Revenue stood at $28.4 billion, with an EBITDA of $3.2 billion vs $4 billion expected. CEO Elon Musk said 2026 will be a massive capex year with planned capital expenditure worth $25 billion this year.

Earnings today

The earnings season picked up pace this week with major megacap earnings in focus. Intel Corporation, which gave pessimistic guidance a few weeks ago, will report its quarterly earnings on Thursday. Alongside this, Lockheed Martin and Blackstone Inc.will also report their quarterly earnings today.