Live from Wall Street | Stocks fall due to the crisis in the Middle East and tension over oil. Nasdaq -1.7% and Dow Jones -0.6%

The Wall Street stock market is starting to worry about the conflict in the Middle East. And energy prices are also reacting to the crisis situation which is worrying with the worsening of international tensions. Only Israel’s caution has curbed further downward pressure on stocks, reflecting greater tension in the technology segment of the Nasdaq which is the worst.

New York stocks thus accentuate the decline that began earlier in the day. At the end, the stock markets accentuated the losses with the Dow Jones leaving 0.7% on the ground and the S&P marking -1.4%. The Nasdaq does even worse, with the technology stock index at -1.8%.

Among the stocks, we note the performance of Goldman Sach, which gained 2.7% after beating estimates. Nike and Intel were also positive, gaining over 1%. Salesforce, on the other hand, is in deep red (-6%), with Tesla (-5%), Nvidia (-2%), weak Visa (-1.7%) and Apple (-2%).

Shares of Trump Media & Technology plunged 18% after the social media company filed to sell a large amount of stock so its shareholders, including Donald J. Trump, could cash out.

There are signs that the war in the Middle East may be taking a new level. This makes it highly plausible that the price of oil could spike, driving the stock market further down, in the near term.

The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil has actually remained quite stable, even falling from the high of the last few months of almost 87 dollars a barrel reached on April 5th to around 85 current dollars. But a jump is expected as Iran attacked Israel in response to the disputed Israeli aggression against an Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria.

The risk is that Israel could respond in kind, bringing the Middle East closer to a broader conflict that could damage oil production or disrupt crude shipments from the Persian Gulf.

This is why the stock market, which began falling Monday afternoon after being in positive territory for much of the day, did not then plunge. The S&P 500 index was in the red by mid-afternoon after rising close to 1% at the open, but remains only about 3% below its all-time high.

While last weekend’s events signal a significant increase in geopolitical risk, the central thesis of S&P’s baseline scenario remains largely unchanged, says an analysis by S&P Global Ratings. That is, the rating agency predicts that the war between Israel and Hamas will continue in 2024 and that Gaza will remain its epicenter, with continued pressure on Israel (AA-/Negative/A-1+) from Iran (unrated) and its proxies.

Israel is already preparing its appropriate response to Iran. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while the United States would prefer to respond diplomatically to prevent any escalation, it would support Israel’s defense efforts.

5.30pm. US stock markets weak. 10-year Treasury yield rises to 4.64%

Wall Street loses tone during the session. At 5.30pm on Dow Jones rises by 0.4%, S&P 500 by 0.3% while the Nasdaq it’s flat. American stock markets are wondering about the Fed’s next moves, which after the latest increase in inflation beyond expectations could postpone the rate cut. Fed funds are now at 5.25-5.5%, at their highest levels in over 20 years, and the markets were hoping for a first reduction in June, which could now be postponed until after the summer.

US company profits could help Wall Street, but the quarterly season opened with a cold shower because JP Morgan forecast a lower-than-expected interest margin in 2024. Added to all this are the geopolitical tensions, magnified after Iran’s attack on Israel on Saturday 13 April. In this context the exchange euro Dollar it remained immobile at 1.0645: it should however be remembered that the single currency has lost ground against the American currency since the markets became convinced that the ECB will cut rates before the Fed.

In addition to the dollar, a scenario of higher rates for longer in the USA has also pushed the yield of 10-year Treasury, which rose to 4.64%. The tense climate in the Middle East, however, did not shake things up petroliumwhich had already taken advantage of the geopolitical context in the past few days: thus the price of Brent fell below 90 dollars a barrel (89.2 dollars, -1.5%) while that of WTI fell to 84.3 dollars per barrel (-1.5%).

3.30pm. US stock markets on the rise. Goldman Sachs beats expectations

Wall Street rebounds after the losses of Friday 12 April, when fears about inflation and rates were added to those about bank profits, triggered by JP Morgan’s lower-than-expected forecasts on the interest margin for 2024. At 3.30 pm Dow Jones rises by 1%, S&P 500 by 0.9% and the Nasdaq by 0.6%. US stock markets are proving to be stronger even than the escalation in the Middle East thanks to the good news coming from Goldman Sachs’ accounts (read below).

But also the retail sales contribute thanks to the 0.7% monthly growth that emerged in March: the figure beat the consensus of economists (+0.3%). In April, however, theEmpire State Manufacturing index of the New York Fed improved to -14.3 points from -20.9 in March, a value however lower than the consensus (-9 points). Here are five stocks to watch on Monday, April 15.

At 3.30pm Goldman Sachs shares rose by 5%. In the first quarter the Wall Street giant has beat expectations on profits and turnover, thanks to the performance of the trading and investment bank divisions. Specifically the useful of Goldman Sachs increased to 4.13 billion (+28%), equal to 11.58 dollars per share, well above the estimated 8.56 dollars. THE revenueshowever, rose to 14.21 billion (+16%), above the 12.92 billion expected.

2. Tesla lays off 15 thousand employees

At 3.30pm Tesla shares lost 2.6%. Not just big tech, even Elon Musk’s house is forced to make layoffs. The manufacturer of electric vehicles will cut more than 10% of its staff, that is, 15 thousand employees. In an internal note Musk explained that he will examine every aspect of the company to make it more competitive and able to face the competition from Chinese manufacturers. Companies like BYD have flooded the markets with cars at lower prices than those of Tesla: thus the American company has been forced to cut its price lists several times in a price war which eroded margins, damaging the stock on Wall Street.

3. Apple loses its crown as king of smartphones

At 3.30pm Apple shares lost 0.8%. In the first quarter of 2024, sales of iPhone fell to 50.1 million (-10%) globally due to competition from rivals Samsung and Huawei. The Chinese, in particular, have grown by double digits thanks to the support of state funds. According to the International Data Corporation report (Idc) the Cupertino company recorded the steepest decline among the top five smartphone brands. Thus Samsung regained first place, taken from it by Apple in 2023.

4. New Trump Media crash

At 3.30pm Trump Media shares lost 11%. The record-breaking IPO is now just a distant memory for the company behind the social network Donald Trump, Truth. Since its listing, the stock has lost 20% due to the loss from 58.2 million emerged in 2023, caused by 39.4 million in interest expense. Then the company submitted an application for theissuing millions of shares additional.

5. Medical Properties Trust

At 3.30pm, Medical Properties Trust shares jumped 24%. The real estate investment fund will sell its majority shares at five Utah hospitals. The operation has a total value of 886 million.(All rights reserved)