Wall St ends sharply lower as Iran retaliates against Israel attack

By Noel Randewich and Kanchana Chakravarty

(Reuters) -Wall Street ended sharply lower on Friday after Iran launched missiles at Israel in response to intensive Israeli strikes aimed at crippling Tehran’s ability to build nuclear weapons.

Explosions were heard and seen over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as sirens sounded across Israel following what the country’s military spokesman said was the firing of missiles from Iran.

That came after Israel struck nuclear facilities and missile factories in Iran, escalating tensions in the Middle East and undermining global investor confidence. 

Oil prices surged nearly 7% on fears the conflict could disrupt crude supply from the Middle East. U.S. energy stocks rose in tandem, with Exxon (NYSE:XOM) up 2.2% and Diamondback (NASDAQ:FANG) Energy rallying 3.7%.

“It looks as though we could be in for a full-blown military conflict," Elias Haddad, senior markets strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, said earlier on Friday. "If it ends up closing down the Strait of Hormuz, where a third of global oil supply goes through, this could have some pretty nasty effect on global markets."

Airline stocks fell on fears that fuel costs could climb. Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) lost 3.8%, United Airlines fell 4.4% and American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) declined 4.9%.

Defense stocks climbed, with Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), RTX Corporation and Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) all gaining over 3%.

The S&P 500 declined 1.13% to end the session at 5,976.97 points.

The Nasdaq declined 1.30% to 19,406.83 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.79% to 42,197.79 points.

Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by financials, down 2.06%, followed by a 1.5% loss in information technology.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 17.9 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 18.2 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

For the week, the S&P 500 dipped 0.4%, the Nasdaq lost 0.6% and the Dow fell 1.3%.

Photoshop maker Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) fell 5.3% as concerns that the company’s pace of AI adoption was too slow overshadowed an increased annual revenue forecast.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) jumped 7.7% to a record high, rallying for a second day after the technology company gave an upbeat forecast driven by demand for its AI services. 

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) dipped 2.1% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) lost 1.4%.

Visa (NYSE:V) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) both fell more than 4% after the Wall Street Journal reported that major retailers are exploring cryptocurrencies that could eliminate the need for payment intermediaries.

A tame consumer price report, softer-than-expected producer price data and largely unchanged initial jobless claims earlier this week helped calm investor jitters around tariff-driven price pressures. U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at their meeting next week.

With investors betting the United States will reach trade agreements that reduce President Donald Trump’s steep trade barriers, the S&P 500 is now trading just below its February record highs.

The University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers showed consumer sentiment improved for the first time in six months in June amid trade uncertainty.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 by a 6.1-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 10 new highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 37 new highs and 131 new lows.