Global markets shuddered on Thursday as stocks fell after earnings reports from big technology companies spooked investors and oil jumped to its highest level in months on a series of worrisome developments in the conflict in the Middle East.
Oil jumps to its highest price in months.
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Worries of renewed fighting in the Middle East drove the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, up 3 percent to about $112 a barrel, its highest level since May.
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West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, also rose, to nearly $100 a barrel.
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Oil had reached as high as $120 a barrel since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran nearly eight months ago, which has disrupted exports from the energy-rich Persian Gulf region. Before the war, global oil was trading around $70 a barrel and about 20 percent of the world’s oil flowed through the Strait of Hormuz, an artery between Iran and Oman that has become treacherous for commercial ships since the start of the fighting. Oil flows through the strait are running at about 75 percent of prewar levels, according to Kpler, a maritime data company.
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In the United States, the average price of gasoline was $4.27 a gallon on Thursday, according to the AAA motor club, up 43 percent since the war began. The average price of diesel has surged 68 percent over that period, to $6.31 per gallon.
Stocks fall, dragged down by tech companies.
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Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to a 1 percent decline when stocks resume trading in the United States on Thursday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was set for a steeper fall, approaching 2 percent.
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Large tech companies at the forefront of the A.I. expansion pulled down market indexes, as investors have grown more wary of the returns promised by wildly expensive A.I. projects. On Wednesday after markets closed, Meta reported a big decline in its cash flow and said it would issue a new class of stock to help raise more money to spend on data centers and other A.I. initiatives. Earnings at Tesla fell short of Wall Street expectations, as the automaker run by Elon Musk poured resources into self-driving vehicles, humanoid robots and other new technologies.
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Major markets in Asia, which are heavily influenced by technology industry trends, posted declines, with benchmark indexes in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea all down by at least 2 percent. In Europe, the Stoxx 600, an index that tracks the region’s largest companies, fell about 1 percent.
Attacks in Saudi Arabia and on ships in the Gulf roil markets.
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Violence flared in the Middle East overnight, another factor weighing on markets. At least two people were killed in a strike on an airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, the home city of Saudi Aramco, the state oil giant. Two other people died after air defenses intercepted a drone that targeted an oil field run by Aramco. The Saudi government did not say who they believed was responsible for the attacks. The Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has been striking Saudi infrastructure for weeks.
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Saudi Aramco staff were instructed to leave the company’s headquarters building in Dhahran and to work remotely on Thursday, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the company. Aramco did not respond to a request for comment and the Saudi energy ministry referred questions to Aramco.
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In the Persian Gulf, several commercial ships have been attacked in recent days. On Tuesday night, a tanker carrying oil products, the Soyia, was reportedly struck while at anchor in the northern Persian Gulf, according to Marisks, a maritime risk firm. Another ship, a Kuwait-flagged crude oil tanker, was struck on Wednesday while sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire on the ship, according to a maritime agency operated by Pakistan’s Navy.
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Thursday that it had struck four tankers in the northern Persian Gulf that it claimed had been illegally transferring oil. It also said that three more vessels had hit mines in the western Strait of Hormuz. Those attacks could not immediately be independently confirmed.
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In an article published in The Financial Times, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said that Iran, “simply by virtue of geography, will always have unparalleled leverage over maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.” He warned that any further escalation from the United States would result in a “painful outcome.”
Jenny Gross and Lisa Friedman contributed reporting from London.
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