Treasury yields and oil prices rose while US stocks dipped yesterday after Reuters reported Iran’s supreme leader has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, a hard stance against one of the main US demands.
Also weighing on US stocks were shares of Nvidia, the world’s biggest company by market capitalisation. Nvidia was down 1.6 per cent in choppy early trading despite the company’s earnings beating Wall Street expectations.
Nvidia late on Wednesday forecast second-quarter earnings of $91 billion and announced an $80bn share repurchase programme.
Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s order could complicate talks on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran, potentially making the conflict, which has sent energy prices soaring, drag on.
US President Donald Trump has assured Israel that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium will be removed and that any peace deal must include the demand, Israeli officials have told Reuters.
Investors were also watching developments in Turkiye. Trading on Turkiye’s stock market was temporarily halted after sharp falls and the government’s bonds slid after one of the country’s top courts dealt the latest blow to the main political opposition party. The court’s move annulled the 2023 congress of the main opposition Republican People’s Party in which its current chairman, Ozgur Ozel, was elected.
The US-traded iShares MSCI Turkiye exchange-traded fund was last down 8.8pc.
In the Treasury market, the yield on benchmark US 10-year notes rose 3.9 basis points to 4.609pc, from 4.57pc late on Wednesday. Oil prices also were higher. US crude rose 3.22pc to $101.42 a barrel and Brent rose to $107.71 per barrel, up 2.54pc on the day.
Stocks on Wall Street were slightly lower as investors weighed the latest news on Iran.
“When you look at the normal economic environment surrounding this market, you would expect (stocks) to be lower, but if you believe the war will come to an end soon – that we’re at a temporary high on energy prices, it does push you to look more not just at the underlying earnings that have been good but also the earnings potential that comes from AI,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.
SpaceX unveiled its IPO filing late on Wednesday, giving the market its first glimpse into how much billionaire Elon Musk is spending on AI as he bets on transforming the rocket maker into a broader AI-led business.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 70.95 points, or 0.15pc, to 49,936.02; the S&P 500 fell 27.51 points, or 0.37pc, to 7,405.46; and the Nasdaq Composite fell 144.51 points, or 0.55pc, to 26,127.03.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 1.62 points, or 0.15pc, to 1,103.27.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.25pc.
The dollar rose to a six-week high after the Iran report.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.26pc to 99.39, with the euro down 0.3pc at $1.1592. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.18pc to 159.19.
Spot gold fell 0.82pc to $4,506.11 an ounce.
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